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OR 



SERMONS AND SAYINGS 

BT 

REV. B. POMEROY, 

OF TROY CONFERENCE. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION, 

BY REV. JESSE T. PECK, D. D. 



PUBLISHED FOR, THE AUTHOR, 

BY S. R. GRAY, STATE STREET, ALBANY, N. Y. 



ALBANY: 

VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS, STEAM PRINTING HOUSE. 

1867. 
v 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty-seven, 

By BENJAMIN POMEROY, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for 
the Northern District of New York. 



Sold by Agents; Price $1.60. Sent by Mail with postage pre- 
paid on receipt of price. Address the Author on Agency or for 
Books, Waterford, N. Y. 



LC Control Number 




n^1 £QR 



INDEX TO SERMONS. 



The Great "Work — Nehemiah vi, 3 11 

Self-Proprietorship Considered — 1st Cor. i, 19 24 

The Comprehensive Title — Part First — 1st John. iv ; 8 33 

The Comprehensive Title — Part Second — 1st John 3 iv, 8 . . . 41 

The Comprehensive Title — Part Third — 1st John, iv, 8 49 

Immortal Mechanism — 2d Cor., v, 5 58 

Prayer "Vindicated — Job, xxi, 15 72 

Saints, the Lord's Portion, and the Reason of "Worlds — 

Psalms, iv, 3 84 

Repentance — Acts iii, 19 96 

Man a Moral Failure — Psalms, lxxxix, 47 104 

Responsibilities of Young Men — Eccl., xi, 9 110 

The General Judgment — Part First — Rev., xx, 12 131 

The General Judgment — Part Second — Rev., xx, 12 138 

Sons of God like Christ — 1st John, iii, 2 148 

The Heavenly Race a Desperation — Phil., iii, 13 157 

The Monumental Hour — Part First — St. John, xvii, 1 161 

The Monumental Hour — Part Second — St. John, xvii, 1 167 

The Decisive Hour — St. John, xvii, 1 176 

The Church the Glory of Christ — 2d Thes., i, 10 203 

Bone Witnesses — Psalms, xiv, 7 216 

On Resisting the Holy Ghost — Acts, vii, 51. 221 

Missionary Speech 233 



INDEX TO SAYINGS. 



Love-feast Testimony at Albany District Camp-meeting 245 

Sunday Morning Testimony (same meeting) 246 

Testimony at Troy Conference, Cambridge 247 

Testimony at Q. M. Saratoga Springs 248 

At Albany Centenary Love-feast 251 

The Christian a Mystery 254 

Vision of Death 256 

Machine "Worship 260 

Present More Than Past 268 

Present and Future Compared 270 

Blessed in Body but Cursed in Soul 275 

The Great Theme 276 

Greatness versus Baseness 276 

New Tear's Day 276 

Girt for the Race 277 

The Christian not Two, but One 278 

Sin Described 280 

Character Photographed 281 

Soul Sensitiveness • 282 

Truth and Right Immortal 288 

A Word to the Saints 292 

Chinks for Blank Corners— My D. D 300 

First Person Singular 300 

Laziness in Confederation 300 

Two Looks 300 



INTRODUCTION. 



For some thirty years, multitudes have listened to the remark- 
able discourses and original sayings of Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy. 
On great occasions, especially at Camp-meetings, he has shown a 
power of thought and expression wholy unusual, even to men of 
the highest reputation as pulpit orators. From the most quiet 
talk, which, however, was always unique and far-removed from 
common place, he frequently rose to the most startling grandeur, 
sweeping everything before him, by the power of his appeals, and 
the melting tenderness of his entreaties to dying, sinful men. 

He has been deemed eccentric, but his eccentricities are not sense- 
less, nor attempts at humor. They are generally clear originality, 
and in a field of thought, furnishing bold and uncommon expres- 
sions, and a high degree of practical usefulness. 

He is, we must admit, sometimes extravagant in his figures, and 
in his flights of eloquence, but this fault, so common in extraordi- 
nary speakers, in him, not unfrequently becomes an excellence, as 
it brings forward with overwhelming force some great truth, or 
represents a grand crisis in his appeals. 

In the later periods of his life, as his physical power has abated, 
while his mental vigor remains, and he has become "supernumerary," 
he has been urged persistently, to publish some of his more remark- 
able discourses and sayings. He has declined for years, and some 
of his friends have attempted quietly to report him, and thus pre- 
serve for Useful purposes, things which it was not at all probable 
any other man would ever say. A few of these expressions have 
found their way to the press, and will now be reproduced. 

Our brother has at last consented to the wishes of his friends. 
He has reached a life of simple trust, both as to the wants of his 
soul, and body, and family; and is willing to do anything for the 
good of the church and the salvation of men. Using, as be does, 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

all his time in labors of love, he has overcome his persistent 
diffidence, and consented to publish a book, that he may give 
opportunity to the judgment of others to show its correctness, in 
the work he undertakes to accomplish for the glory of God. 

There is always room for a new book, if it maintains the sound 
principles of revealed truth, with spirit and ability. This we 
believe to be such a book. The author shows everywhere his firm 
belief in the old doctrines of human depravity, the atonement, 
justification by faith, entire sanctification in this life, the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, heaven and hell. There are no polemical discus- 
sions of these doctrines, but they are the fundamental elements of 
the work. 

Besides these, he has certain views and opinions of men and 
things, which are his own; for which he asks no endorsement, 
either from the undersigned or others. He drives furiously through 
the cherished work of his neighbors, not excepting his brethren and 
friends, and asks no pardon for the destruction in his track. His 
scathing sarcasm and his powerful eloquence, rushing at the things 
he despises, leave little chance for reply, and none, at all, to doubt 
his sincerity. If his readers differ from him, if they think his 
scourgings of folly and sin merciless and extravagant, they will 
certainly approve his manly independence, and be highly enter- 
tained by the bold dash of his attacks, and the gorgeousness of his 
style . 

There is no need of effort to induce people to buy and read his 
book. Thousands of his old friends and hearers are anxiously 
waiting for it, and they will find, what is not commonly true of the 
published discourses of distinguished preachers, so much of the 
fire and power of his extemporaneous efforts, that they will almost 
fancy themselves standing before him, amid the throng of the 
tented grove, listening to the roll of his evangelical eloquence, and 
the startling novelty of his original enunciations of truth. 

Strangers will say this is an eccentric title — " Shocks from the 
Battery." So it is, but there is no affectation in it. Let them read 
the book, and then say if the electrical power of many of his 
paragraphs, does not justify his highly figurative title. 

The style of the " Sermons and Sayings" is above criticism. If 
our extraordinary friend sometimes makes words, and mixes up 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

figures, setting at defiance technical rules of rhetoric, he makes 
ample compensation, by giving to his glowing sentences a strong 
and obvious meaning, and this is the best possible use of language. 
What can criticism do with such combinations of words as the fol- 
lowing, read from " Bone Witnesses:" 

'•'Oh, ye haters of light — of truth and righteousness; yea, of 
civilization — of school houses and spelling books, even ! Take 
warning, whether dead or alive, take warning ! that your great 
trouble is yet to come from bones ! These are God's reserved wit- 
nesses, whose coming awful clamor, like storm of fire, shall chase 
you down to night." 

Or, the following from " The General Judgment, part i," to the 

backslider: 

" Yes, you are there in murderous blood — the mark is on you, — 
it's on your feet 1 How hard you trod Him down when you treated 
with contempt His salvation ! Oh ! how drabbled in atonement 
blood you are ! As these blood-spotted multitudes are made to 
face retribution, I seem to see restrained lightning grow restless 
and fiery. 0, how its forkedness shoots out like adder's tongues — 
lurid and red, all tremulous with charged damnation, as if in haste 
to be avenged on that spotted throng ! How atonement blood on 
feet stirs the vials of wrath .'" 

Or this, from " Truth and Right Immortal:" 

" Away then — away on to the side of right ! Be in haste to 
plant yourself in the pathway of truth's on-coming triumphant 
march, and there wait and work till eternal justice shall walk the 
world's high honor up to you !" 

Read a few words from " Soul Sensitiveness," and see whether 

you have any use for criticism here: 

" Charity is no such hoodwinked, gullible simpleton as you sup- 
pose. Its power of inlook is enough to make hypocrisy quail. Its 
discernment is in its purity." 

" Look at that woman of fine wrought frame; whose very skin is 
transparent, leaving the nervouse gause work unclothed, so very 
sensitive to outward variations. She is a sun-dial in herself. She 
feels sunrise and noon. She feels sundown, and can tell midnight 
by the weight of its dark. She feels the shadows of the milestones 
as they pass her on the highway of life." 

Nothing is more like the author than the following from ''Machine 

Worship." You may differ with him, but you can't criticise him: 

" A great organ in the church of God, monopolizing all ears with 
empty sound j Machine worship ! Harmonious display of wind — 
wind gone mad — wind in distress ! We almost think the cattle 
plague has come, such deep groanings and rattlings in the throat." 
" To ask me, in the noon of the world, to postpone my intellect 



X INTRODUCTION. 

and soul both, to the gratification of my ears, and stare and gape 
over empty sound, like dogs barking at the ringing of church bells, 
that's a slander on my manhood. I have got a little too far along 
for that. Small as I am, I have outgrown ears at last." 

"Love-feast Testimonies" show the exalted sphere of thought 

and feeling, to which our brother has been raised. For instance: 

11 1 am hid in the cleft of the rock, and am safe. If I am a 
christian, I cant be cursed. God can outbless all the curses. My 
welfare is guaranteed for both worlds. I am insured for more than 
I am worth; it would be a speculation to die! Glory to God ! I 
am blessed now! I feel grand, feel safe and triumphant; am 
monarch of all I survey. I feel both small and great, only the 
great is more than the small ! Hallelujah !" 

But you will read the book — the whole book, and be your own 
judge of its doctrines and style. You will feel that you are learn- 
ing from an extraordinary teacher, that you are in the absorbing 
presence of <: thoughts that breathe and words that burn." May 
God make the work a blessing to thousands. 

JESSE T. PECK. 



SERMONS. 



THE GREAT WORK. 

Nehemiah, vi, 3 — "I am doing a great work. ; '* 

My text is a reply of Nehemiah to his enemies, 
who had sent a request to Jerusalem for this servant 
of the Lord to meet them in one of the cities of Ono 
for consultation. Nehemiah, apprehending some 
evil design in the matter, sent back this short, indig- 
nant reply : u I am doing a great work, so that I can 
not come down : why should the work cease, whilst 
I leave it, and come down to you ?" 

Although the work of Nehemiah was literally 
great — great in a mechanical sense — yet its chief 
greatness appears in the fact, that it was the work 
of God, and related to predictions of the Bible, and 
not very remotely connecting with the moral world. 

Leaving the connection of the text here, I propose 
to take occasion from it to introduce one proposi- 
tion, viz: that Christianity is a great work; and, 
were circumstances favorable, we might proceed to 
consider a very important and practical proposition 

* Preached at a camp meeting near Saratoga Springs, and at the 
great tent meeting in Brockport, N. Y. 



12 THE GKEAT WORK. 

intimately connected with this first, viz : That Chris- 
tians are honored in the subordinate prosecution of 
this great work. 

But for the present occasion, the first of these two 
thoughts will be considered. I expect to mention 
four particulars in which the greatness of this work 
appears. 

I. First : It is great in itself — in the elements of 
its nature. 

It is considered quite an undertaking to superin- 
tend the earthly affairs and interests of one family, 
and it is so in many instances, at least. It is still a 
greater work to construct a railroad, to invent a 
steam engine, or to build a Jerusalem. Great as 
these works are, with many others, however great 
in magnitude — great in nature ; — and they are con- 
fessedly great, so much so that the world is aston- 
ished by them, — yet they are not so great in nature 
as it would be for an Ethiopian to change his skin, 
or a leopard his spots. Not so great as it would be 
for an individual, by forethought, to make one hair 
white or black, or to add one cubit to his stature. 

While Christianity is greater than all these, — 
Christianity changes not only the outward aspect of 
its subjects, effacing the dark spots from man's cha- 
racter only — but it changes his moral nature, trans- 
forming apostate man from fool to wise, from sin to 
holy I 

It is a great work to build a pyramid ; and yet it 
is not so intricate a work as it would be for a mortal 



THE GKEAT WORK. 13 

man to go five miles toward the moon : While 
neither of these is so great in nature as that change 
in man, which enables him to love that which he 
once hated by nature, and to hate that which he 
once loved naturally. 

In the discoveries and inventions of man, in all 
the works of art and labor, great as they are in 
utility, magnitude and grandeur — great as they are 
in mystery, even — still they are within finite compre- 
hension, all capable of being described and painted. 
But who will give us a map of Christianity's work- 
ings ? Who will describe a soul struggling for eter- 
nal life, or paint the movements of the Holy Ghost 
creating an immortal soul anew, baptizing it into 
God and Heaven ? Great in nature ! 

Again : The chief greatness of all the works of art 
and device of man consists in the discovery of nature's 
laws by which the elements are made to serve a pur- 
pose j all of which were in existence before their 
discovery. Every new invention — every new wonder 
which breaks upon an astonished world, is only a 
new discovery of an old work of God : Whereas the 
Christian is a new production ; the offspring of a 
foreign world ; the impartation of a new element ; 
yea, of a new nature. 

Christianity is the result of the most mysterious 
movement known in the history of Eternity ! 

II. Second : Christianity may be called a great 
work as it respects the sphere of its operations. 

The sphere of its operations extends to every 



14 THE GREAT WORK. 

department of our complex nature, aiming at the 
best results for soul and body, bringing "promise 
of the life which now is, and of that which is to 
come." 

Unaided by religion, it is found difficult to pro- 
duce reform in any particular, from bad to good — 
to establish one truth in society, or settle one right- 
eous principle in civil jurisprudence. 

Delavan and Father Matthew, for instance, found 
it quite a work to establish the Temperance reform. 
While philanthropists have labored long to recover 
the heathen from his indolence and nakedness, it has 
proved a hopeless task even to teach them cleanliness. 
But Christianity includes all moral reforms. Chris- 
tianity proposes to establish truth and righteousness 
in every department of society, bringing peace and 
holy union into the family circle — enjoining industry 
and frugality at home — honesty and justice in our 
commerce abroad — requiring Governors to rule in 
righteousness, while the people are to obey as unto 
the Lord — and in the congress of kingdoms and 
nations, a "thus saith the Lord," is the end of the 
controversy, while Kings are to be nursing fathers, 
and their Queens nursing mothers to the Church 
of God. 

Again : The work of Christianity is great in extent 
and duration. 

The institutions, laws and regulations of man are 
generally local, or at least restricted to classes or 
tribes. Means and measures are changing. Laws 



THE GREAT WORK. 15 

passed yesterday will be repealed, most likely, to- 
morrow or next year ; whereas, Christianity is not 
only marked with universal adaptation — with per- 
manence and unchangeableness — but it is great in 
the scope of its actings, in the latitude and longitude 
of its sphere. It will brook no boundaries, obey no 
restrictions or limitations. The ages of time, the 
poles or the ends of the earth, are the only bounda- 
ries known on the chart of God's gracious purposes. 

The coasts and continents lie open to the rolling 
waves of Heaven's benevolence, which shall span the 
earth, measure time up to the shores of eternity at 
either extreme, baptizing the world as with the dew 
of Hermon ! 

It is quite a task to govern a State ; but it is 
greater to rule a Nation. The government and over- 
sight of one town is even a great work, — to punish 
crime, instruct youth, reform the drunkard, and feed 
the poor, &c: But Christianity has undertaken to 
cope with the maladies and depravity ; the heathen- 
ism and ruin of a world ; to right up the nations, 
and, instead of discordancy, to tune the kingdoms 
to better music ; to correct their lives, to purify 
their hearts, and robe them for the skies. 

III. Christianity is great in the variety and effi- 
ciency of its agencies and influences. 

Father, Son and Holy Ghost — three in one ! The 
All-Sufficiency ! The inherent moving Power of the 
wondrous system ! 

Then, as subordinates, we find angels, prophets, 



16 THE GEE AT WOEK. 

apostles, martyrs, ministers and christians of every 
age and clime, are among the rational, holy agents. 
Then we find not only the animate and inanimate 
world ; but the opposing world — the kingdom of 
anti-Christ — is under tribute to God. Sun, moon 
and stars, earth and skies, wind and water, storm 
and tempest, thunder and lightning, pestilence, 
famine, earthquake and cholera, — these are some of 
the troops at God's command, along wiih poverty, 
sickness, death and devils : arts, sciences, and inven- 
tions of men ; commerce and trade, monarchies and 
republics, revolutions, commotions, tottering thrones, 
falling crowns, Southern rebellion and emancipation. 
The Infinite One has a way of bringing things, crea- 
tures, beings and worlds into the harness for the 
accomplishment of his purposes ! 
V Buchanan, Jeff*. Davis, Satan & Co. may yet be 
found drawing in one yoke for the advancement of 
human freedom in America. 

For illustration : When light was dim and truth 
was scarce, wicked Pharaoh was made to work with 
the Eed Sea in advancing the interests of Chris- 
tianity. 

Arts and sciences, winds and waters were in the 
same service with Columbus in the discovery of 
America ! And who will say that the discovery of 
America does not belong to a series of events and 
circumstances which have resulted already in giving 
the world a moral shock from pole to pole ? 

"Who cannot see that the wicked device of the 



THE GREAT WORK. 17 

murderers of Christ, in setting a watch of Roman 
soldiers over the dead Nazarene, has resulted in 
makiug the resurrection of our Redeemer more 
obvious and striking ? So of the commotions of 
later times, God is found in the vantage-ground with 
anti-Christ. If He is not seen in directing means 
and measures, He is seen in overruling results. The 
nations of the earth are in wild confusion. Crowns 
and thrones are but the sport of mobs, and empires 
fall at the shout of the populace. As though by the 
permission of God, the passions and distractions of 
earth and hell had broken through all restraint, 
and storm intersecting storm is sweeping like a 
sirocco blast through the monarchies and popedoms 
of the old world, distracting the nations, toppling 
thrones, and breaking up the old foundations of 
things. Be it so ! Howl on, ye winds, since in all 
this ye are preparing a way for God ! 

This rocking of empires, these political commo- 
tions, are only the herald of God, announcing His 
approach — the fore-chariot of his train, breaking 
down the barriers ; driving back the sullen bolts to 
the gateway of nations ; opening wide doors to the 
Gospel and the heralds of salvation ! 

God will have his way somewhere, and if He is 
shut out of the department of means, as He often is, 
because they are wicked, He can seize the results of 
wicked means, and put them under tribute to the 
great work. He can take war, wicked war, where 
murder and guns leave it, and put the results into 



18 THE GEE AT WOEK. 

the harness for the advancement of the great work ! 
I predict that God, through these commotions, is 
breaking into the long dreaming of an infidel race. 
He who sitteth in the heavens is having the wisdom 
and greatness of men in derision. He is evidently 
on his way to this revolted empire. 

The gracious God, after being bolted out of half 
His world, for centuries — knocking at her gates 
through missionaries and mercies to no purpose, 
except to excite its wrath and murder, — is at last 
fearfully shaking these national gates with His own 
power ; gates stained with martyrs' blood, and noted 
for martyrs' bones. If His Gospel cannot enter first, 
his judgments can, and His mercies follow. 

If man will not hear the mild words of God, borne 
on the gentle zephyr, He can ride His purposes 
through thunder to their consummation ! 

" With His own power," did I say? This is per- 
haps not strictly correct. For it seems that God 
has done but little in the way of punishment yet. 
He has only permitted the elements which have 
been warring with right and truth, to war with each 
other. He has permitted the antagonisms to come 
into collision. But just now, barbarism is menacing 
the citadel of liberty and religion, shaking its rude 
locks, stamping with its bare foot, and swearing that 
it will plow up this fair heritage of civilization, 
unless it can call its slave-roll on Bunker Hill. 

IV. Christianity is great in its progress and cer- 
tain triumphs. 



THE GREAT WORK. 19 



The enterprises and undertakings of man are 
marked with failure. Buildings and extensive works 
are commenced ; times change, and all are sus- 
pended, perhaps to decay and waste. A father dies, 
and the family is broken up, and the homestead 
sold. A son, the dependence of the aged parents, 
is taken away, and the mortgaged farm is lost, and 
the aged ones go poor and lonely to the tomb. A 
daughter is schooled and educated at great expense 
and care, the flower of the family and the hope of 
years ; but she becomes pale and consumptive, and 
sadness broods over that once happy group. A 
grave will soon be dug for the fairest gem of that 
social band. 

Not so with Christianity ! In all the apparent 
defeats of truth and righteousness, we find it is more 
a delay of triumph than a defeat of victory. Reli- 
gion, by being crushed to the earth to-da3 r , will only 
make its rise to-morrow more obvious and striking. 

It is true, at a time when Christians were few, a 
strange murder was committed near Paradise, and a 
stranger to God might have predicted religion a 
failure. But a marked Cain is a walking warning 
to sin till the day of his death ; and the example of 
Abel's faith is inspiring the Church down to this 
distant day. 

Daniel is committed to lions, because he prays. 
Shall I say there is progress in this, when the best 
man in the nation is thrown to lions, and prayer 
proscribed by royal edict ? Yes ! We shall read 



20 THE GREAT WORK. 

victory, to-morrow, in the decree of King Darius, 
published through all Media and Persia, in favor of 
God ; and the great work goes on, and Daniel still 
lives to "pray as aforetime." 

Hebrew mothers are in loud lamentations over 
their sons ! Is the great work a failure ? It seems so. 
Can God be found amid the carnage and appalling 
gloom of this dark clay ? A little up the river you 
will see a praying mother making an ark of bul- 
rushes. Well, God is there, and His triumph will 
come by way of the ark. To-morrow Moses will 
weep in sight of Pharaoh's daughter, and Egypt at 
length shall be made to quail by an adopted child 
brought in kingly courts. Slavery shall be abo- 
lished from the nation, and slaveholders buried in 
the mighty deep by the decree of God, and the great 
Work shall go on ! 

Look at that six-cubit Goliath, in his coat of mail, 
brandishing his beam-spear, defying the armies of 
God ! Behold this man-monster, moving with ele- 
phant tread for forty days, before the palpitating 
ranks of Israel ! Why was this long-continued insult 
permitted ? Was not Jesse's David to be had on 
the first challenge ? Were not the five stones in the 
brook ? Was it not that Israel might be humbled, 
and made to feel their weakness before their triumph? 
Was it not that the Philistines might rise to the 
height of their arrogance and power before their 
fall ? In short, was it not for the purpose of so aug- 



THE GREAT WORK. 21 

meriting the emergency, that God might be seen by 
both nations in the defeat as well as in the victory ? 

If God permits the King of Syria to encamp about 
Elisha, with his prowling troops ready to devour 
this man of God, is it not that he may make this last 
grand parable of himself before he is rushed upon 
by the fire-storm from God, smiting all the camp of 
Syria with blindness ? So the great work goes on ! 

Jesus dies ! and the disciples flee. The world 
grows dark and cold. Devils hold jubilee over the 
dead Nazarine, and the universe is in suspense ; but 
the resurrection follows, and God's purposes are 
making headway against earth and hell ! The Holy 
Ghost is given j the day of Pentecost follows ; three 
thousand are converted — and the great work goes on! 

Stephen is stoned, and the saints look sad ! But 
Saul, holding the garments of the murderers, is 
receiving light and truth, and the haughty perse- 
cutor of to-day will soon be seen blind and penitent, 
at Damascus, and humbly kneeling at the feet of 
Ananias, a worshiper of the Nazarine. And ere the 
grass grows green on Stephen's grave, his convert 
in death is preaching to the Gentiles ! 

A mother, Eunice, dies ; and a grandmother, Lois, 
is no more ; both women of faith and holiness — a 
loss to the world; but "son Timothy" lives the 
embodiment of the faith of both, and the ranks are 
kept good. 

A great victory is gained, they say, at Phillippi. 
That mighty Paul and his companion Silas are sub- 



22 THE GREAT WORK. 

jugated to the stocks of the inner prison ; and the 
satellites of darkness are holding jubilee ! But the 
mystery is, that Paul and Silas sing also. Who, 
then, has the victory ? On which side does the 
jubilee belong ? An earthquake will settle the con- 
troversy before morning, and your jailor and his 
family will be converted, hushing the shout in the 
kingdom of darkness, and adding new trophies to 
the great work. 

Wesley dies ! And Coke is buried in the mighty 
deep ! and the Methodist family is mourning, on both 
sides of the great waters, but the revival goes on. 

Juclson and Carey have failed, they say j their 
voice is hushed in death, and the redemption of 
India is adjourned. No, no ! There is more that 
lives of these holy men, to-day, than ever died ; and 
triumph comes from their mission-work. Their con- 
verts are preaching the Gospel to-day, while their 
names are odor on the lips of praise. 

That holy man, Mellvil B. Cox, the first mission- 
ary to Liberia, falls at his post in that lone land of 
strangers ; and all along the plains where Carthage 
stood, and up the Mesurado's heights, are wild with 
notes of sorrow wrung from the hearts of heathen 
converts, because their missionary is no more. Does 
this forebode a failure ? Nay, verily ; a thousand 
voices answer nay, and Africa shall be redeemed ; 
for even now is Ethiopia stretching out her hands 
to God. 

The Christian dies, and is buried ! Dark is the 



THE GEE AT WORK. 23 

tomb and pale the corpse ! He, who exultingly 
looked forward to the day of his dissolution, and 
often, in hoi}" prayer, triumphed over death, is con- 
quered at last. His hosannas have ceased. The 
hush is on his lips, and he has entered the dominions 
of corruption ! And can this be called certain tri- 
umph ? It is certain and immediate triumph for the 
soul, and prospective for the body ; for those who 
sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. He has 
gone down to dust, it is true ; but he sleeps in ori- 
ental climes, hard by resurrection morn ! We bury 
him in corruption, but God shall unbury him all 
incorrupt ! Shall we say the Christian is dead 
because the tabernacle is rent ? No ! The inhab- 
itant of that clay-house home has only moved out 
of his temporary shanty into his " house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens ;" and he already 
knows more of life and immortality than can be 
known here ; and if we could open our ears to soul- 
talk, we should hear the old exult: "Thanks be 
unto God who giveth us the victory I" " To die is 

GATN 1" 



SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 

1st Cor. vi, 19 — " Ye are not your own." 

Man, practically, in works and ways and words — 
all along the generations, down to the present, — has 
kept up the bold assumption of self-ownership. His 
aims and ends, his purposes and propensities, begin 
and end in this fictitious claim to self — a claim the 
most preposterous, and in its results the most per- 
versive of all others. 

The great Proprietor of all beings and worlds 
comes forth, in the text, with a short, emphatic de- 
nial of this high assumption. 

My object on the present occasion is (if possible), 
to settle this disputed claim to ownership ; as it 
must be obvious to all minds that this is a question 
of no ordinary importance — exerting an all-control- 
ing influence on the heart and life : For if it be a 
fact that I am the undisputed owner of myself, then 
I am amenable to myself only, and above all law 
out of myself. 

I expect to present some great arguments (or 
grounds) in favor of God's claim to man, in opposi- 
tion to man's claim to himself. 

I. The first of these arguments will be found in 
man's history. 

My hearers are aware, probably, that my text 



SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 25 

does not contain the full sentence of the verse. This 
is the omitted part — "but ye are bought with a 
price." If, then, we have been bought, the infer- 
ence is plain that the time was when we were for- 
feited by some means. Now the question is, how 
did that forfeiture occur ? 

The Bible says, we sold ourselves. But this is 
not all. We sold ourselves for naught. Here is 
the humiliating transaction, — that man forfeited him- 
self by the most abject and mean way of all others 
possible, viz : self-sale. 

But you say : " If he sold himself, the time was 
when he owned himself; and is it not possible that 
in this barter-bargain of self, there was a reserve 
made somehow by which original right, to some 
extent, has been perpetuated ?" 

Friends, this is a total forfeiture : not only in ori- 
ginal, but in heirs and assigns, forever — not so much 
as reserving a right of way, so to speak. 

But the gracious God, through the atonement, has 
drove a breach through fictitious titles and claims 
to His old possessions ; and there, in the face of the 
occupancy of death and the clamor of devils, He 
maintains his claim against all comers. 

But to the history, as I have diverged a little. 
You were inquiring about original ownership, as 
inferred from the fact that he sold himself. Breth- 
ren, this is the last place to be inquisitive. The 
more we investigate here, the worse our shame and 



26 SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 

sins appear. I tell you, the history is bad, and from 
bad to worse. 

The last character noticed is bad enough, viz : 
self-salesman ! But the next in the history back is 
darker still, if possible : Kidnapper, kidnapper, man- 
steaeer ! ! Self-stole, then self-sold ; and the low 
price of the sale is evidence of the steal — sold for 
naught ! 

And shall we push our inquiries still farther back 
in this history, with the hope of finding the where 
of man's right to himself ? 

Friends, the short truth is, there is not a creature, 
being or world, but can make a better show of self- 
ownership than man. The reason is, his original 
production cost more. 

The day he was created — the hour, even — when 
the three-one-God breathed into him the breath of 
life, and he became a living soul, he was a greater 
debtor to the universal Lord than any being in 
heaven or out of heaven. There was more of him, 
though in the infancy of existence — more of this 
solitary aboriginal, standing up in Eden alone — 
more of complex nature and attribute — more in va- 
riety of capacity and enjoyment — more in outlay 
and ceremony, than of any being or world this side 
the Infinite. 

My dear Sirs, it required six days of creative 
power and wisdom infinite, to prepare a place to 
make this being in. Some natures are so coarse and 
earthy that they might exist, perhaps, in a world 



SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 27 

but half made. Just let the dry laud appear well 
out of chaos and nothing, aud they would maiutain 
quite an existence ou this accident of a world. But 
when you come to man, so vast in want and depend- 
ence, he requires the all things of creation ! It 
would not do to risk an existence so delicate and 
finely wrought, without ample preparations. Hence 
the palace was all fitted up with the varieties of 
nature's elements and decorations, with the last 
chandelier hung in the gorgeous dome, before the 
inhabitant was introduced. The chronometer of 
the heavens wound up — the master-spring touched, 
and the first strike of time was heard before man 
was. This was not only the last article in the infi- 
nite catalogue of creations, but this was evidently 
designed as the crowning act of power and wisdom 
infinite. Here, all intelligences are to be taken on 
surprise by the masterpiece of <#'eations — a being 
unlike all others in heaven, earth or hell. There is 
no being in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, 
or under the earth, that has been and is drawing so 
extensively on the resources of the Infinite, as man. 
Every wind that blows ; every stream that flows ; 
every star that twinkles ; every sun that rises ; 
every influence that breaths, with the angels of 
light, are under tribute to man — bearing their rich 

freight of blessings on to this favorite of heaven. 

© © 

The world is contrived for his good. The ten- 
dency of all things originally was toward him. The 
grooving was such (so to speak), that everything 



28 SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 

that moved, moved that way with its freight of 
good. 

Could you put a tongue into every creature and 
thing, and go round the spacious world with the 
question, " What ivere you made for ?" you would 
get just this one answer : " Made to bless man. 11 

This, then, is the being — while in his Eden state, 
all spotless and pure ; yet in Paradise, that outer 
heaven, just a little out, and over against the sunny 
side of upper-heaven, within speaking and commun- 
ion distance of angels and God ; with the good of 
all things flowing towards him, and the complacent 
God smiling sunshine into him — then and there he 
prostrated and prostituted himself to sin ; he diso- 
beyed God ; and ere that sun went clown, the hea- 
vens got dark, and every light in upper Paradise 
went out to him, and angels turned their backs on 
ruin too vast and dark for sight. That being, who 
had been the theme of talk and song, of wonder and 
amazement, has gone into fellowship with Safan — 
he's sold under sin ! 

How momentous the transaction ! How sudden 
the change ! The sunny Paradise of yesterday is 
the bleak brow of storm and wrath to-day ! Flam- 
ing swords guard the tree of life ; and the pall of 
death — of death temporal and death eternal — comes 
down in double night on all our race. Man — Adam — 
man is dying — already dying ! As in living, so is he 
in dying, a double death ; a twin pang is setting in 
for a lasting struggle. The gall has dropped into 



SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 29 

the life-blood, which shall taint every vein to the 
last-born of the race ! All is lost ! all is forfeited ! 
Man is but a burlesque on the worlds created for 
him. Another rebellion has commenced — another 
rupture in the kingdom of God — another break in 
holy bonds — another gulf 'twixt God and beings, — 
beings created holy. 

What can be done ? What can be done in heaven, 
even, in such a surprise as this ? an event which has 
wrecked the most magnificent system of eternity ; 
for God had staked his worlds on man's obedience. 
The aim and end of all these wondrous works was 
man. He constituted the significance of all crea- 
tions, so that in his fall the object of all things w T ent 
down also. The ponderous whirl of worlds is but 
a sublime impertinence ! 

And can we suppose the all-wise God would suffer 
such a glorified mockery to run on ; such a huge, 
nameless, aimless, blushing system, to go so much 
as once round, when it is to no account except for 
the ridicule of devils ? 

Do you not see, brethren, that some great untold 
expedient will be required for such a crisis as this ? 
For, here is the most magnificent system — the most 
stupendous idea — all developed and brought out to 
the gaze of the universe, but so contrived and so 
published, as having but one end and aim — arranged 
for just one object ; and that object has failed. He 
has taken the utility of us worlds, with our impor- 
tance and dignity, and perverted all to the aims of 



30 SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 

death and hell. He has entered into league with 
anti-Christ, and taken us into the conspiracy against 
Ms Maker and our Maker. Earth cursed for his 
sake ! Here is a stress too great for words — a crisis 
beyond the reach of works ; and as for more worlds, 
they would only increase the already blushing shame 
of what now are ! Stupendous failure ! Here is an 
emergency having no hope this side the Throne. To 
redeem man, and exalt creations to the rank and 
importance of original design, God himself must 
enter the wreck. For here is ruin too deep and 
broad for agents to cope with. Angels are of no 
account, and works are superfluous. The indignity 
is too monstrous for atonement or punishment, short 
of the " Lord's Christ." The honor of the throne 
must touch this shame ! The life of God must come 
in contact with this death ! 

And it was done ! The Godhead was committed 
by promise to the wondrous work of redemption ! 
The news ran and rang through earth and heaven — 
11 / have found a ransom." 

u Ye are bought with a price." 

Another argument on the side of God's claim, and 
against the claim of man, is found in the harmonious 
gradation of all things toward the Infinite ; who is 
the center toward which the universe is to gravitate. 
Hence, whatever interrupts this gradation is discord- 
ancy in the universal harmony — is a warring element 
to the general design. While the extent of its 
damage and indignity must be estimated by the 



SELF-PEOPEIETOESHIP CONSIDERED. 31 

count of the series below ; for all the degrees below 
this break in the scale are lost to the general good, 
also an indignity is offered them in the perversion of 
their designs. 

If this is a correct statement of the general har- 
mony, what must we think of him who, standing at 
the head of this system — making the last degree in 
this sublime gradation — receiving the good and 
glory of all things, from self back to chaos and noth- 
ing, with the implied understanding that through 
him they are all to go over to the glory of Gocl, he 
is found consuming them upon his lusts ? Alas ! 
alas ! Here is a sin too mean even for God to par- 
don, one would think ! A robber ! a thief in the 
sight of the throne ! Entrusted with the good of a 
world, to carry up to God's glory, he stops the 
whole at himself, and just sends up to God the in- 
sult that he 's his own. Here, then, is the being — 
this is he, — O, my soul ! blush for thy kinsman 
and thyself ! Let the angels veil their faces ! Let 
them kneel in dust before the spectacle ! Here is 
the being who arrogates to himself independence of 
God ! who assumes to be his own ! who disdains to 
pray or repent ! He for whom all nature stands, 
and stars their courses keep ! He for whom God 
the Son came down, and groaned and bled and died ! 
for whom Christians weep and pray, — walks out 
under this high archway of worlds, facing the hea- 
vens in his nodding plumes, disputing Jehovah's 



32 SELF-PROPRIETORSHIP CONSIDERED. 

claim to ownership, snuffing at holy law, and des- 
pising the religion of Christ ! 

There is another argument, strong and valid, 
which I must omit, viz : The universal dependence 
of all things and beings is such, as to preclude the 
possibility of self-isolation or self-possession. 

I close now with one terrible fact — a fact as ter- 
rible to sinners as it is precious to saints, viz : That 
God's claim to sinners, though disputed, is never- 
theless valid — running through and back of all other 
imaginary rights or titles ; and that this claim is 
nowhere else disputed but in probation. It is set- 
tled long since in heaven and hell. 

He could not renounce His ownership if He would, 
because He has committed himself to the work of 
taking care of you, sinners, and also of taking care 
of His realm against you. 

He is bound to save you, if the appliances, bless- 
ings and remedies of two worlds can do it ; but if 
all fails, He is bound to damn you, and under just 
the same obligations to damn a sinner who won' t 
repent, as He is to save a saint who believes. 

A civil government can no more renounce its cri- 
minals than it can its loyal subjects. If they cannot 
be endured in the kingdom, they must be trans- 
ported. It must hang a murderer, as well as pro- 
tect a civil citizen. 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE. 

FIRST PART. 

I John, iv ; 8 — e% God is love/' 

Perhaps an apology would be required of any 
mortal mau, however great, iu presuming to select 
as a text, a truth of such unfathomable depths as the 
one presented in this short passage. And especially 
for men of ordinary minds to undertake with things 
so much above their measure, has a bad appearance, 
to say the least. 

And yet, this truth is common property, given to 
the entire Church ; and hence small minds have a 
right to it. And suppose they cannot go as far as 
others in its comprehension, does this say they shall 
have nothing to do with it ? Aclmittiuo- the un- 
learned to have but limited views of the heavens, 
when compared with the astronomer, shall this 
deprive him of their contemplation as far as he is 
capable ? So we can speak of spiritual truths, 
although they may be too great for us fully to com- 
prehend. 

The passage selected, is justly called a great text ; 
not, however, because it is a long one — great in its 
surface measurement, — but great in its mysterious 
depths. If it is only a point in appearance, it is the 



34 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 

starting-point — a narrow opening into infinitude. 
Here, the Eternal, unapproachable Deity is reduced 
in title to a word. And what a word it must be, 
which expresses in one, the incomprehensible God! 
What a depth of meaning must be attached to a form 
of speech which names the Godhead in a syllable ! 
God is love ! 

This is the title of Him whom we adore ; a name 
given by himself. But where shall we go for the 
discovery of this great truth ? Shall we approach 
the throne above, and draw near the Unapproach- 
able ? Shall we attempt to analyze the nature of 
Him who cannot be found out by searchings ? 

Were it declared of a heathen's God, that he is 
of this or the other substance, such as clay, iron, 
wood or brass, anatomy would soon settle the ques- 
tion. But what shall we do here, when He whom 
we never saw, holding himself in the mazy distance, 
yea, concealed in his own invisibility, speaks as from 
behind eternity, saying, " God is love " ? And yet no 
human hands can take hold of Him ; no telescope can 
search Him out. And who is sufficiently acquainted 
with the metaphysics of the spirit-world, from this 
short declaration, to tell us what this love is, and 
how it exists in God as the all-pervading element of 
His nature ? Who will describe its character, yea, 
its essence ; or map out the order of its actings ; 
how it is that the attributes of the Incomprehensible 
are so related to this great self-element as to be sub- 
ject to it ? In vain do we urge our inquiries in this 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 35 

direction. These are curtains too dark for mortal 
eyes to penetrate. We are to depend on the outer 
stirrings, the visible movements, for a knowledge 
of the hidden God. What God has clone, in con- 
nection with what He has said, will furnish a field, 
both ample and fruitful, for the illustration of this 
precious truth. Here God has written out himself, 
drawn His own likeness, and hung it up in sight of 
all generations. 

That God is love, wull appear in more aspects or 
senses than one. 

I. God is love in nature. 

That love is his nature, is presupposed from His 
benevolent purposes. The harmony of design trace- 
able in the exercise of His attributes, is evidence of 
a common center ; that these perfections act out 
from one nature — are directed by one and the same 
principle, and are working out the same design. 
That center, nature or principle is love. 

I am selfish, for instance. Selfishness is my chief 
characteristic — the supreme of my nature. Selfish- 
ness pervades me in every department. If I think 
or speak ; if I lift up my hands, or look out of my 
eyes, it is for the gratification of selfithness. Every 
faculty of my being is under its sway. My intellect 
is in league w x ith it, and my body is a servant to it. 

God is love. Love is His chief characteristic — 
the fundamental signification of himself. Love is 
the ruling principle in the Godhead ; it is himself 
in nature. Is God almighty ? His omnipotence is 



36 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 

one of his powers of love, and is just as intimately 
related to love as my muscular power is to my self- 
ishness. 

Do you define my nature to be selfishness ? Then 
all the powers and faculties of that nature are under 
the sway of selfishness. Is God's nature love ? Then 
all the attributes and powers of that nature belong 
to itself — to love. 

II. The truth of the text appears, secondly, in the 
designs of God, as indicated by His works and ways 
and words. 

He is not only love in nature, but love is also 
the ruling principle of his action. Does God act 
almightily ? His action is dictated by the impulses 
of love, instead of being measured by the thunder 
of his power ; that is, it 's not omnipotence reaching 
the extent of itself, doing its utmost ; but omnipo- 
tence fulfilling the law of love — working a benevo- 
lent purpose. If power lets the lifted thunder drop, 
it's not because of its inability to uphold it, but 
because love requires its fall. 

We are not to suppose that because all nature is 
moving in harmonies, and the day dawns out upon 
us in mildness, that omnipotence has spent itself, and 
that our safety depends on the exhausted condition 
of power. No ! Our well-being does not rest with 
omnipotence, but is provided for in the love of God. 
Our safety lays back of thunder and storms ; back 
of all visible appearances, in the gracious designs 
of love. Omnipotence is but an instrument of love, 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 37 

working out its benevolent purposes. O ! who 
would stand out on this rolling globe, in the full 
display of omnipotence, acting without law ? But 
now, while power is shaking the heavens, and enrag- 
ing the storms, we recollect that He whose name is 
love — He whom winds and clouds obey, — is direct 
ing the elements, saying, " Thus far shalt thou go, 
but no farther ;" that while the solid foundations 
are shaking, and earthquakes are upheaving their 
vastness, yet it is love which gauges the yawning 
abyss. So the Christian may sit down amid the war 
of elements, and sing — sing in holy composure : 

" The God that rules on high 
And all the earth surveys, 
That rides upon the stormy sky 
And calms the roaring seas, — 
This awful God is ours — 
Our Father and our Love." 

So of wisdom in the contrivance of the world — 
in the adjustment of its various parts to a specific 
design. 

Are we to suppose that the last possible thing 
has been proposed by wisdom for Omnipotence to 
create ; that no other variety, quality or arrange- 
ment could be conceived of; that a wisdom whose 
chief characteristic is infinite, could contrive nothing 
farther — could mold chaos and nothing into no other 
form ? Certainly not, if we are to judge of wisdom 
by the last contrivance in the catalogue of creations. 
For man, as a contrivance of wisdom, would not be 
4 



38 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 

taken as evidence that Infinite Lad failed just there. 
That omnipotence had brought the greatest world 
out of nothing that it possibly could, and omni- 
science had swept the outmost circle of its percep- 
tion, while wisdom had closed up its originations. 
So far from this being the case, we suppose that all 
the works and winders of God, known to man, are 
but feeble specimens of what Infinite is capable. 
For the huge worlds that roll in the vast solitudes 
of space, are said to be only the work of God's 
fingers. 

But the question may arise : ' ' Why has the exer- 
cise of God's attributes been so greatly limited ? has 
love any bounds? will love be satisfied with be- 
stowing a small good, w r hen a larger good is within 
its reach ? and if God's nature is love, would not 
that nature prompt him to a greater exercise of His 
perfections in the gratification of His desires ? Not 
if the work of fingers would answer every purpose. 

And has a rational world no interest in knowing 
that the resources of love are equal to its greatest 
purposes ? Alas, for the character of God — alas, 
for the confidence of his rational creatures, if it is 
to be known that the Infinite is not equal to himself 
— that His disposition is greater than His ability. 
The idea of a limited God would send a shock of 
alarm through earth and heaven. For who could 
say but some exigency might arise amid the rolling 
worlds, or the rebellion of hell, that a God of lim- 
ited means should not be equal to ? But when w r e 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 39 

learn that means have already been adapted to the 
greatest end conceivable by men or angels, and that 
some of the greatest of these means were only the 
work of God's fingers — the mere recreation of 
power ; as much as to say, omnipotence lays back 
of this, — we feel that the interests of a world are 
safe in such hands, and that no emergency can pos- 
sibly arise in the progress of the universe, that the 
God of love will not be equal to. 

In contemplating the great and holy God, then, 
in the exercise of His attributes, we are not to look 
upon the scene as a mere display of these perfec- 
tions, although this may be a subordinate object to 
impress man with the greatness and grandeur of the 
Infinite ; but the great idea of this display lies in 
the designs of love. Not only are these several 
attributes working up to this idea, but God in unity, 
God the trinity, is committed to the same design, 
and all His agents and all His worlds are commis- 
sioned to the same purpose, drifting to the same 
point. This is the crowning idea of Deity — this is 
the climax of the universe. 

But what can this great end be, to which all 
things appear to be subordinate ? What is it, when 
simplified, but a design — a desire on the part of 
God for the diffusion, the impartation of himself? 
This, according to our present limited views of love 
— of the love of benevolence — is its longing desire. 
This is its restlessness ; yea, this is its distress, to 
impart itself. And just here, in the diffusion of 



40 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART I. 

itself, lies its power and majesty. Trace love where 
we will — from God its source, down to the last-born 
of God — and this is the nature of love divine. And 
here, by the way, lies the deep philosophy of the 
redemption of the world ; and this constitutes the 
motive-power of the missionary cause. It is this 
which drives our chariot-wheels, 

" And death must yield to love." 

This is what martyrs are made of; and this is 
what o-oes to the stake and to heaven. This is the 
power which shall spike the camion of the battle- 
field ; which shall break the fetters of the slave, and 
subjugate the world to the reign of Christ. 

God is love ! 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE. 

SECOND PART. 
I John, iv, 8 — " God is love." 

In the former discourse from this text, an attempt 
was made to show : First, that love in God, instead 
of being restricted to a mere quality of the Divine 
Being, should be regarded as the all-essential ele- 
ment of His nature, in which all other qualities or 
perfections subsist. Second, that love is the ruling 
principle of action with the Divine Being ; that all 
His attributes act in subordination to this law of His 
nature ; that when God acts, He acts by law — by a 
law in himself, in His own nature, which the text 
says is love. And, third, that the leading law of 
love, or the great object of love, is the impartation 
of itself. 

In continuing this subject, I shall : 

I. First, refer to some arrangements in the natu- 
ral and spiritual world, as illustrative of the great 
and precious truth of the text. 

It will be seen that certain great arrangements of 
beings and worlds are such as to admit of an exten- 
sive manifestation of love. The idea is this : that 
if God acts by the law of His nature, and that nature 
is love, we may expect to find marks and designs of 



42 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE — PART II. 

love, more or less, throughout the universe. As 
though this were the leading idea with God from 
the beginning, to construct a world after the law of 
love ; to adapt every rational being, in his nature 
and attributes, to love as his element. 

A few illustrations of this design will be sufficient. 

1. I shall first speak of a certain arrangement in 
the natural woild relating to man's dependence on 
God for a subsistence. 

I allude to the peculiar manner in which our hea- 
venly Father provides for his dependent creatures. 
It is much like the ancient rain of manna, which was 
given only for one day at a time. God deals out 
his blessings by piecemeals, that He may hold us 
nearer to himself, instead of creating great stores 
of food and raiment at first, erecting mountains of 
bread, and spreading out seas of milk and honey, in 
view of which men generally might be tempted to 
adopt the soliloquy of the rich fool in the Gospel, 
saying, " Soul, take thine ease," if not to forget God 
altogether, or attribute all this good to the work of 
•chance, excluding God from His own world. To 
prevent this result, and keep man perpetually re- 
minded of his great Benefactor, God has ordained a 
perpetual dependence. " Give us this day our daily 
bread," is the universal arrangement. By this 
arrangement our wants and supplies are so even- 
balanced, that we are saved from despair on the one 
hand, and from independence of God on the other. 
Not only is time dealt out by fleeting moments, but 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART II. 43 

our breath is so nicely gauged to the necessity that 
it cannot be increased, and there is no way by which 
we can advance beyond the demand. This we shall 
find to be the arrangement not only in the natural, 
but also in the spiritual world. It is true, in the 
harvest-season of the year we feel tolerably well 
guaranteed against starvation ; but what lies before 
this abundance ? The sun retires, and we are left 
in the bleak winds of winter with a limited stock of 
bread. Month after month passes on ; bread is fast 
diminishing, until emptiness reigns in all our bor- 
ders. And yet the spring dela} T s ! What an offset 
is this to full supply ! God seems to be holding us 
in sight of destitution, that we may feel our need of 
Him. At length the sun returns, earth revives, and 
man lives again — lives to be thankful for timely 
relief. So it is ; we receive enough of good, and at 
the time most neeeded, to assure us of God's care 
and love for us ; and yet we live enough in sight of 
destitution to make us thankful that we are not 
there. 

Here is the philosophy — this is the law of love. 
By this arrangement man is perpetually impressed 
with the care and love of God toward him. And, 
as it is a law in philosophy as well as in the king- 
dom, that love begets love, or that we love Him 
because He first loved us, it is obvious that that 
arrangement which is the best calculated to manifest 
God as a God of love, is the best calculated to beget 
love in man to God. 



44 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE — PART II. 

2. The second illustration under this head relates 
to man ; — his moral mechanism and varied relations 
are marked with the designs of love. 

Man, as a contrivance (I may say), is fashioned 
after the law of love. As though love were the 
model after which he was created, and not after the 
law of omniscience, nor yet of omnipotence, — he is 
too deficient in thunder to admit of the similitude of 
all-mightiness — he is a feeble creature in this parti- 
cular — there is neither proportion nor sympathy 
between omnipotence and man ; but when we come 
to love, it is said, "We love him because he first 
loved us," — here is reciprocity between the finite 
and the infinite. Here, man approaches nearer the 
Unapproachable, than in any other particular. This 
perhaps is the only transition-point where man passes 
up to God, yea, into God. Here the stream flows 
into the ocean. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth 
in God, and God in him, — for " God is love. 11 

That God is love, is proveable from the fact that 
he who was created in the image of God, is capable 
of a higher imitation of the infinite in love, than in 
in any other particular. And it is in reference to 
love that the Apostle affirms, in this chapter, "As 
He is, so are we in this world." The most intimate 
relation — the deepest communion — the most holy 
fellowship between God and man, subsists in love. 
God is love. This is an inherent truth in man. It 
is readable on his soul, though depraved. It is seen 



THE COMPEEHENSIVE TITLE PART II. 45 

in his spiritual mechanism. He is contrived for 
love. 

3. The third arrangement to which I shall allude, 
refers to a peculiarity in man's salvation. 

While our individual salvation is decided by our 
individual obedience, we are nevertheless saved 
altogether by Jesus Christ. It is true, this is a 
mysterious relation ; but in this admirable arrange- 
ment — this mysterious blending of the Divine All- 
Sufficiency with human agency, I read the law of 
love. The arrangement is a deep of wisdom. 

Being made so responsible for our salvation, and 
having so much to do in the great work, we become 
impressed, not only with its greatness, but also with 
our entire inability to perform it. This sense of 
our inability prepares us to appreciate the timely 
interposition of the all-sufficiency of Christ. Hence 
the penitent sinner, according to this law of arrange- 
ment, will exhaust his last hope, and urge his last 
plea, before he will accept the plea of Jesus' merits. 
He will cling to his crumbling foundation till the 
last sand has given way, before he will accept of 
the Rock of Ages — the chief corner stone of Christ. 

" But when his all of strength shall fail, 
He will with the God-man prevail." 

It is the clire necessity, the overwhelming pressure, 
that brings him to Christ as his last alternative. But 
when he comes to Christ under these circumstances, 
and is saved from the wretchedness and ruin which 



46 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART II. 

could not be relieved by his resources, he is then 
prepared to appreciate the deliverance. Yes, every 
sinner that comes to Christ must come with a sense 
of sin and hell deep in him. And if he enters 
heaven at last, he will do so with this deep, eternal 
sense of what he once was. And, all along his pil- 
grimage from pardon to paradise, the vivid recol- 
lection of his former wretchedness and ruin will 
heighten that mysterious love which stooped to his 
misery. And here lies the deep reason for his gra- 
titude. Here the hosaunas that never languish take 
their rise. And here is the philosophy of that 
ascription so popular with the redeemed (Rev. i, 5), 
where they say, "Unto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, 
unto Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. 7 ' 
Suppose it possible, in the nature of things, for 
God to save by mere prerogative, without any refer- 
ence to man's repentance or faith, just as He first 
created light; — suppose He could say, "Let the 
sinner be transformed into an elect of God," and lo ! 
the careless, prayerless one is changed to a saint ; — 
now, would it be possible, in the nature of things, 
for that saint to know how much his salvation 
amounted to ? Could he understand the darkness 
and death from which he had been delivered, having 
never felt it ? And, if it is one law of the kingdom 
to love much, where much has been forgiven ; and 
if it is another law of the kingdom to love Him 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART II. 47 

because He first loved us, we readily see the deep 
reason why we should know how much God has 
loved us — how much He has done for us — here it is. 

4. A fourth arrangement which develops the law 
of love is found in the diversified relationships of 
the human family. 

That we are dependent upon God, and also upon 
each other, even for a subsistence, to say nothing of 
the great and small conveniences and comforts of 
life, is a wise provision for the exercise of love. That 
the period of our helpless infancy has been provided 
for in the labor and care of others, has laid us under a 
tribute of gratitude to those who preceded us, — that 
when we, poor things, could not lift up ourselves, 
we were borne about and waited on by the patience 
of love. What is the natural result of this depend- 
ence, of this care and labor, one toward another, but 
the promotion of love in the human family ? Then, 
lest man, in the pride of his heart and the full strength 
of his years, should forget his former helplessness, 
just as he reaches the summit of himself, he is made 
to look down the declivity of life to another period 
of helplessness. Old age is coming on with its trem- 
bling limbs and failing intellect. Surely, a being 
who is carried through two periods of helplessness, 
by the kindness of love, will be likely to love in 
return. 

But the beginning and end of man are not the 
only periods of his dependence. His earthly exist- 
ence is but one continued series of wants — of favors 



48 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE— PART II. 

and helps received from others. "Who has existed 
so much as one day, without receiving benefits from 
others ? Whither shall we look without finding 
occasions for loving our fellow beings t The remem- 
brances of love are set up through all our pathway. 
We cannot go amiss of these hints to love one another. 
It seems God has contrived everything for the deve- 
lopment and exercise of love on the largest scale. 
He has even created necessities for its exercise. 

What we are as individuals is more the product 
of others than the fruit of our own unaided efforts. 
If we can put forth efforts in our own behalf, we 
were first taught to do so by others. Even our 
alphabet was taught us by the patience of love. 
What a prodigy of depravity must that person be, 
who cannot love. God is love ! This great, com- 
prehensive title is readable wherever His works and 
ways are found. Here, it is traced out in our rela- 
tions one to the other. And had we time to exa- 
mine the animal kingdom, from great behemoth 
down to the invisible insect, all along through these 
various grades and species, we should find witnesses 
for God as the God of love ! 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE. 

THIRD PAET. 

T John, iv, 8— " God is love." 

In continuing the investigation of this subject, I 
shall pursue still farther the examination of certain 
great arrangements, with the view of discovering 
God as defined in the text, viz : Love. 

5. The fifth arrangement to which I shall allude 
relates to our spiritual relationships in the kingdom 
of grace. 

In this we shall find the more striking manifesta- 
tions of the God of love. Here, rising above natural 
instinct, we come more fully under the reign of love 
divine. Here, in our spiritual relations, we find 
ample scope for that love which knows no partiality 
— which will brook no restraints j but rushing on 
under a high impulse to the relief of wretchedness 
wherever it may be found, — here the longings of 
divine love within us find a broad field for action. 
It is here, also, that we are to look for the triumphs 
of love. 

It should be borne in mind that love is not only 
an element of happiness, but is also the most pow- 
erful principle of action. There is no passion, power 
or principle known, within the range of human 



50 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART III. 

experience, that is so uniform and all-enduring as 
divine love in a human soul. Ease,, health, pro- 
perty, reputation, friends, home and country, yea, 
life itself, are at the disposal of love divine. There 
is no passion or interest but is under its sway. From 
whence arose the declaration of the Apostle, where 
he says, "I count not my life dear unto myself?" 
It is the language of love asserting its control. As 
in God, so in the Christian, love is the controlling 
principle. This being the case, perhaps no greater 
punishment could be inflicted on love than to place 
it in sight of the object of its commiseration, de- 
prived of the privilege of putting forth an eflbrt to 
relieve its misery. It w T ould prefer labor, though 
perpetually disappointed of its desires. 

What body could long endure the emotions of 
love, excited by the sight of misery, and yet pre- 
vented from action ? So, to locate a Christian in 
this wretched world, deprived of the privilege of 
doing anything for its relief, would be a perpetual 
murder. To put love in chains amid the misery of 
this world, w T ould be a violation of its nature. 
Hence the ample arrangements for the exercise of 
love in our spiritual relations. How otherwise can 
w T e account for the fact that He, who is all-sufficient 
in himself, should admit into his service such a 
retinue of feeble, ignorant subordinates ? so feeble 
and ignorant, that it would seem to require more to 
give them their orders and to sustain them in their 
mission, than it would to accomplish all the great 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE — PART III. 51 

purposes without them, to say nothing of the evil 
they would do by their perpetual blunders. 

Why does He gather about His designs such 
ranks of impediments ? Why does the Almighty 
God consent to cumber His wheels with such masses 
of mortality? Why does He not speak directly 
into that sinner's soul, without sending a mortal man 
to stammer out his word? The answer to these 
questions will be found in the law of love. 

If I would relieve the hunger of my poor neigh- 
bor, why do I put myself to more trouble in finding 
my child and assisting her to carry the morsel, than 
it would be to carry it myself? While I lose no 
credit in the matter by the services of my child, and 
while the donation is the same in either case, by 
this course I bless two instead of one. My child is 
blessed by having her benevolence gratified, and a 
bond of interest and affection is created between the 
child and that poor one. 

So the gracious God, in dispensing a blessing, He 
has ordained that it shall pass through many hands, 
as all who participate in the gift are blessed in the 
act. If it is the nature and delight of love in God 
to bless his needj^ creatures, it is according to the 
nature of love in Christians to delight in bearing the 
blessings. The minister preaches the truth of God 
to me — I am convicted ; that christian brother ex- 
horts me to repentance ; the sister hopes that I will 
persevere in the great work, and bids me adieu, 
with tears in her eyes ; the next brother prays with 



52 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE — PART III. 

me ; and the convert rejoices when I am converted. 
What is the result ? It is this : All these persons 
have a peculiar interest in my welfare. I have an 
affection for them which nothing else could create. 

6. Perhaps the supposition may be considered too 
speculative, yet the idea seems somewhat plausible, 
at least, that there may have been a design, in a 
moral point of view, in the location of this world, 
and that the relations of the three worlds were ad- 
justed according to the law of love. 

However this may be as it respects design, one 
thin^ is certain : that the situation of the three 
worlds is such, with respect to each other, as to 
admit of the exercise of love on a very extended 
scale. 

This world is not so far removed from heaven 
toward hell, as to preclude our salvation by the Infi- 
nite God, it is true ; and yet we are fallen so near 
the dark abodes as to call out the infinitude of His 
love to save us. 

The peril was considered too great for archangels 
to be entrusted with the mission of our redemption. 
It was God manifest in the flesh, who, by love, 
sprang into the jaws of death to save the guilty vic- 
tims. It was He, who was mighty to save — He, who 
has on his vesture and on his thigh written, "King 
of kings and Lord of Lords " — who wrestled with 
the enemy in his strong entrenchments, and over- 
came — who spoiled principalities and powers in the 
gates of hell, making a show of them openly. Here 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART III. 53 

is love, not in word only, but love in conflict, and 
love in triumph. 

Now, notwithstanding the redemption-price has 
been paid, and a way opened for our final escape 
from this perilous region to the safe abodes of hea- 
ven, yet our location is not changed. Our prox- 
imity to hell remains the same ; that is, holy per- 
sons are still within reach of the fallen powers. 
Notwithstanding this world has been taken from 
the enemy by conquest of Jesus Christ, yet for wise 
purposes the enemy is permitted to appear in his 
old possessions — permitted to buffet saints, and lead 
those captive who sell themselves to iniquity. Now, 
this constant exposure to the fiery darts of hell, its 
darkness and gloom, with the malice of devils who 
lay in ambush all through this region and shadow 
of death, constitutes a necessity for the exercise of 
love in our behalf. And this constant interposition 
of love, in saving us in so dangerous a world as this, 
is calculated to beget love in us to God. 

Then, again, our exposed and helpless condition 
furnishes us an apology, at least, for the ministry 
of angels. How much the love of the spiritual 
family has been increased by admitting angels, even 
to a subordinate rank in the system of agencies for 
the salvation of the world, we are not permitted to 
know. There can be no doubt, however, but the 
arrangement is highly promotive of love, not only 
among the saved from earth, but also in those who 
have gone forth to minister for them who shall be 



54 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART III. 

heirs of salvation. The solicitude and service of angels 
in behalf of the redeemed will no doubt constitute 
a bond of affection between these two branches of 
the brotherhood of heaven, which will be as lasting 
as memory. And if holy angels rejoice at our con- 
version, what must be their rapture when they are 
permitted to greet us in the kingdom of our God, 
saved from the perils of these hostile regions ? 

YVe are not to suppose that angels consider it a 
privation or a task, that they are sent off to minister 
to these tempted ones below. For if these stars of 
the upper heavens are scintillations from the great 
center Sun — if they are after the similitude of the 
God of love, — they must consider it a privilege to 
relieve the sufferings of the lovers of Him whom 
they adore, even though required to leave heaven 
in the performance of their duty. 

And I don 't know as these great throbbing hearts 
of love could be well controlled, since they had 
obtained an outlook upon these scenes of misery, 
only to give them some humble place in the system 
of man's salvation ; — to permit them to go on some 
errand of mercy — if it is no more than to lead Peter 
out of prison by night — to roll the stone away from 
the sepulchre — or to hold lions away from praying 
Daniel in their den. 

7. The seventh and last arrangement to which I 
shall allude, relates to a peculiarity in our redemp- 
tion by Jesus Christ. 

That peculiarity is not that the love of God was 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART III. 55 

the moving cause of our redemption, but the pecu- 
liar maimer of that love. In the language of the 
Apostle : " Behold what manner of love the Father 
hath bestowed upon us 1" That He, whose name is 
Love, should love the human race, uncomely and 
sinful as we were, is not so strange ; but that He 
should love us so much, and in such a way ; that He 
should consent to let himself down to such depths 
of ignominy and reproach to save us, — here is the 
mystery and the charm of love. In the language of 
the Apostle : " Great is the mystery of godliness ! 
God was manifest in the flesh." Love was manifest 
in the flesh. 

The greatest illustration of God's love was re- 
served for the fullness of time. In Jesus Christ it 
was published — published on the cross — published 
in a language which derived its life-giving emphasis 
from dying pangs. It was in the language of groans 
unutterable (as one has said), published and embel- 
lished in the rhetoric of sweat and blood and tears. 

There were great difficulties in the way of man's 
redemption. Difficulties not only in the nature and 
condition of the race, but insuperable barriers ap- 
peared in the nature of things — in the holiness of 
law and in the justice of God. These difficulties on 
the one hand, and high claims on the other, were 
such as to require great sacrifices and sufferings on 
the part of the Redeemer. Hence, the chief requi- 
site for the crisis was not infinite power, so much as 
infinite love. 



56 THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PAET III. 

In contemplating God manifest in the flesh, we 
are struck with the prominence of love in the mani- 
festation. In all his acts and words and ways, we 
find no room to doubt His love. This was readable 
everywhere. Notwithstanding that He was omnipo- 
tent and omniscient, it is not so constantly asserted. 
It seems Christ labored to conceal these attributes, 
while no opportunity was lost to declare his love. 
We find him writing on the ground as though he 
understood them not ; — as ignorant. Then he is 
seen escaping out of their hands, as though too 
feeble to withstand the power of puny mortals. It 
is true, occasionally the omnipotent and omniscient 
signs of God appeared ; and even then, as a general 
thing, these attributes were employed for the pur- 
poses of love, — to carry out some design of mercy, 
instead of awing mortals. 

It was not only important that God should love 
us, but also that the love should be manifested. 
Had the interposition of love in our behalf been 
concealed — had God wrought out our redemption in 
some distant part of the universe, or saved us by 
mere fiat, notwithstanding the suffering and dying, 
we suppose the effect would have been quite differ- 
ent upon the redeemed ones, while heaven, with its 
songs of exultation, would hardly have reached its 
highest notes. But the manifestation is in flesh — 
love is embodied and let down among the wretched 
and the lost. 

It is not the pity of God communicated to earth 



THE COMPREHENSIVE TITLE PART III. 57 

by an angel now, but it is pity here ! — here, in tears 
and grief. And if angels have any communications 
to make, it 's to heaven and not to earth ; for the 
news now runs the other way, as though the center 
of excitement and attraction had changed location. 

However angels might have been employed for- 
merly in cominunicatmg the purposes and promises 
of love from heaven to earth, it is otherwise now. 
The battery is at this end of the wires, and has been 
for eighteen hundred years. This world is the center 
of excitement now. It is not God in heaven loving 
the world, but God in flesh, groaning in the garden. 
This is not saving the world by a gracious purpose, 
published from the throne ; — this is dying on the 
cross to save the world. 

The day of purpose and of promise has run out, 
and the scenes of sorrows and groans, of spittings 
and mockings, have set in ; and here they are, 
among men ! Yes ! the great transactions of love 
are here, in the sight of men. 

God is love ! Here are the demonstrations. Yes ! 
the purple robe — the crown of thorns — the garden 
sweat — the Calvary struggle — are attestations of the 
precious truth — God is love ! 



IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 

2d Cor. v, 5 — " Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same 
thing, is God." 

That we may speak and hear understandingly, I 
will first briefly state what is meant by the self-same 
thing for which the Christian is said to be wrought. 

This, as may be gathered from the context, con- 
sists in the pre-eminent enjoyment of heaven in 
reunion with a glorified, immortal body. This, if I 
understand the Apostle, is not only the final state 
of salvation, but this constitutes the object of the 
present groaning desire of the saints. Not but that 
Christians will be happy in paradise, directly after 
death, for the very good reason that they are pre- 
sent with the Lord. But their happiness will be 
more full, more perfect, when mortality is swallowed 
up of life. 

I say paradise, or heaven even , for I have no 
sympathy with the popish idea that we are to be 
stopped somehow or somewhere this side of heaven 
till after the resurrection — in some state or place of 
dreamy existence, not sufficiently real to be worthy 
of a location. I believe in saints going to heaven 
when they die — to real heaven — to the right hand 
of God, where Christ is gone — to a reality and 
locality. 






IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 59 

I. I shall now proceed, first, to notice the place 
in which the Christian is wrought for this self-same 
thing. 

The text contains the very interesting truth, that 
certain beings are made in this world with specific 
reference to another. And to a thinking mind inqui- 
ries may arise with respect to the facilities and gen- 
eral adaptations of our world to such an object. 

What the arrangements were originally, or what 
the results would have been, had the world remained 
as in the beginning, — all green and blooming, roll- 
ing out of chaos under the smiles of its Creator — 
when all things were pronounced good, and man 
was seen walking with his God in holy rectitude 
and intimate fellowship, — what the results would 
have been, had all things remained in their original 
perfection, we cannot say. But since the days of 
briars and thorns, of tare-sowing and tare-growing, 
have come with the sinning and sweating, the crying 
and dying — since the great changes which have dis- 
turbed the harmony and equilibrium of elements 
and relations — tipping the poles, and unbalancing 
creation (as it were). Then the drifting of the 
world in Noah's flood, marring its fair surface, piling 
the continents into the clouds a perfect wreck, as 
though suddenly boomed iu the mighty rapids. 
Since these great changes have taken place, this 
world can hardly be called a favorable place for the 
production of Christians. 

Should a stranger, in his distant wanderings, pass 



60 IMMOETAL MECHANISM. 

this world, ignorant of its origin and purpose, be 
inquired of concerning its use, would he be likely 
to call it the cradle of heaven, where souls are nur- 
tured and trained for angelic society ? Would he 
say it was the dressing-chamber for the upper palace, 
where robes are washed and made white ? Would 
he not rather look upon it as the rendezvous for the 
discordancy of the universe, where the hostile, un- 
manageable elements meet for battle and death ? 

What an exhibition of spoiled beauty ! What dis- 
proportions and what collisions are witnessed here ! 
Even the very face of the globe has the appearance 
of having been plowed by awful tempests ; as if an 
ocean, in its mighty swell, had stood still, with its 
billows fixed and motionless ! Devils, like roaring 
lions, devouring souls ! Men drunk and swearing ! 
Others digging graves or murdering their fellows ! 
Thunders hoarse with bellowing ! Lightnings red 
with wrath, and creation groaning! Wherever we 
look, signs unheavenly appear ! 

As though God had consigned this world over as 
a great plowfield for ruin to try her shares in ! 
Where earthquakes are thrown into spasms, as if to 
train their jaws for coming desolations ! Destruc- 
tion and sword walking through the earth, and lean, 
lank famine blowing malady through its shrivelled 
lips ! A graveyard ! Golgotha of the universe with 
open gates ! ! Death's great skeleton warehouse ! ! ! 

We should not be likely to select a location so 
near the dark abode as this world lies, in which to 



IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 61 

give a soul communion with God. We should not 
select the thoroughfare of devils, where Satan holds 
court and has established his seat, for the purpose 
of robing saints for the banquet of heaven. But so 
it is. This is the only world known, in which Chris- 
tians are made. It is true, it seems not only unnat- 
ural, but impossible, for a soul to be raised to the 
refinement and holiness of heaven, in a world so 
coarse and satanic as this. 

We should not look for the perfection of refine- 
ment and gentility among the whooping tribes of 
the forest. Neither should we expect perfection of 
soul in him who is born under the curse, cradled 
and trained in the neighborhood of devils, death and 
darkness. But the Christian, an immortal harp, 
though strung and keyed amid thunderings and 
lightnings, tornados and tempests, will make mel- 
low music to God and the Lamb ! Yes ! from the 
clatter and clash, the bedlam and devils of earth, 
the Christian will rise to the symphonies of heaven. 

However unfavorable this world may appear for 
a purpose so high and holy, it is the only place 
known for peopling heaven. And for this purpose, 
and this alone, is this great wreck of a world upheld. 
It is the only seed-plot known for the garner of 
heaven. As strange and anomalous as the idea may 
appear at first view, it is nevertheless true, that this 
world is a great spiritual laboratory. As the shop 
in the back grounds of the warehouse, for rough- 
hewing and forging, so is this world a place of pri- 
6 



62 IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 

mary processes, where spiritual creations take place. 
An outstand on the frontiers of death and destruc- 
tion, where immortal essences are wrought to the 
model of the heavenly ! It is here that the cedars 
are hewed, and the marbles chiseled for the upper 
Temple. These are the quarry-lands of the upper 
Jerusalem building ! 

However bleak and stormy this world, the Lord 
has a vineyard and garden here ! Here are the nur- 
sery-grounds for the trees of righteousness, sup- 
plying the groves of paradise with which angels 
plant the everlasting hills ! Yes ! the great trees 
of righteousness, the goodly cedars on the Lebanons 
of eternity, are transplants from the bleak hills of 
time — first cultivated in the green-house of the Sab- 
bath school and Church — surrounded with the chills 
of death and the fog of hell. It is here, that God 
has formed his pearl-waters and diamond-beds for 
the adorning of His home-temple above. And it is 
from this that the great master-builder will bring His 
jaspers and sapphires, His chrysolites and emeralds, 
with stars of various magnitudes adorning the hea- 
venly firmament. 

Yes ! it is here, from this waste howling wilder- 
ness, that God is looking for the sweetest music of 
the universe. It is here, that he constructs and keys 
to the cadence of heaven, His harps, psalteries and 
organs, strung for eternal years, and tuned to the 
theme of redemption. And if we would hear music 
like the sound of many waters — music that raises 



IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 63 

heaven to an ecstacy, — let us stand in the gates of 
paradise when saints, who have come up through 
great tribulation, celebrate redemption through the 
blood of the Lamb, and angels hold their breath ! 

II. Having thus hastily glanced at the laboratory 
(or workshop), let us, in the second place, take a 
view of the mechanism of this workmanship. 

Not that I expect to anatomize man, or so to ana- 
lyze his essence, that the deep complication of the 
immortal machine may be comprehended, or those 
spiritual processes traced out by which the Chris- 
tian is wrought for his glorified destiny. I merely 
propose to refer to some instances of admirable 
adaptation in the Christian's nature and habits to 
that glorified state to which he aspires. 

I refer you to the Christian's desire for immortality, 
as a part of this spiritual workmanship. I do not 
mean that universal desire of all men for existence ; 
I mean that earnest expectation — that immortal 
longing — that looking out for glorified immortality. 

This desire arises perhaps, first, from the present 
inconvenience of a mortal body. This massive bur- 
den of flesh and blood is calculated to beget a desire 
for a more perfect state. In the Christian may be 
found, perhaps, an instance of the greatest dispro- 
portions and contradictions known in the entire cata- 
logue of beings and things. Part spirit, and part 
body — a compound of corruptible and incorruptible 
— an immortal, baptized spirit, capable of basking 
in the sunbeams of heaven ; capable of angelic 



64 IMMOETAL MECHANISM. 

flights amid the stars, the continents and systems of 
the spirit-world, if uncaged : — Now, confined to a 
1)0 dy, walled around, roofed over, and housed within 
a tabernacle of dark, heavy, thick clay ! Painful 
contradiction ! But O ! how the earth-beams bend 
and shake when God speaks to the soul within ! 

The Christian ! What a disproportion of parts ! 
Soul and body ! What an unbalanced compound ! 
Dust of the eaith, and the inbreathings of Gocl ! 
Here is the contradiction — dust and Deity ! Alike 
unfit to sink or soar ! Mortal and immortal in con- 
tention ! Low wants contending with lofty aspira- 
tions, till mortality predominates, and the unnatural 
union is divorced ! Hear it. Dust to dust, and 
spirit back to God. 

2. The Christian desires glorified immortality for 
its own sake. 

By this mysterious change he is to be not only 
relieved of a perpetual impediment to his spiritual 
progress, but the immortality of the body secures 
to him new endowments and facilities for holy ex- 
istence. Here, of necessity, life is confined to the 
zero degree. We can bear but little of the divine 
presence. Hence God approaches us cautiously, so 
to speak, while in the flesh. Mortal eyes are not 
capable of the open face of Gocl. If we see at all, 
it must be through a glass, darkly. All the reve- 
lations of divine glory made to mortals, must be 
veiled and clouded in. Otherwise the body sinks 
and expires. By some accident (it seems) in gauging 



IMMOETAL MECHANISM. 65 

the outbeaming glory, Paul was so overwhelmed on 
one occasion, that he did not know whether he was 
in the body or out. But the Christian expects to 
go to a world, and he will go to a world all holy 
and serene ; — the land of glory and repose, where 
the effulgence of unveiled Godhead would distract 
and destroy a mortal body. Hence, if the soul is 
invested with a body at all, it must of necessity be 
spiritual and immortal. For this we hope and look 
and long. And, but for this glorious hope which 
revives our courage by the way, these saints could 
never be reconciled to these scenes of death and 
graveyards. Instead of looking upon death with 
composure, it would be with disgust and abhorrence 
implacable and eternal ! But in prospect of the 
resurrection, the Christian may repeat, " To die is 
gain." Death is but the opening door to a blissful 
immortality; the vestibule of eternity ! the waiting- 
room for the bodies of unclad spirits, within speak- 
ing distance of Him who is the Resurrection and the 
Life ! a brief laying-out of those who have fallen 
asleep in Christ — laying out in oriental climes hard 
by resurrection morn. And it is not for saints to 
dread these portals, since they open to bliss eternal ! 
Another illustration of this spiritual workmanship 
appears in the religious habits and sympathies of 
the body. For, even the outward man has become 
religious, yielding its members as instruments of 
righteousness. The soul is accustomed to a body. 
The being was brought into existence with a body. 



66 IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 

The mind has grown up in this union. These feet 
have subserved the interest of the soul, taking us to 
the sanctuary. Always ready to run at the mind's 
bidding, they ought to be honored with a walk on 
the golden streets of the new Jerusalem, and they 
shall be. These knees have promoted the humility of 
the heart in their obedient bendings before the mercy 
seat ; and there, perhaps with infirmity and pain, 
have stood for the soul to plead with its God ; or, 
in their quakings and smitings, have expressed the 
terror of one condemned of holy law. They ought 
to have the privilege of bowing with the glorified 
around the throne. These eyes, in their tearful 
mood, have opened to the pent-up grief within, 
giving to penitence the loudest tongue ; talking to 
God with tears of a soul burdened and oppressed. 
These eyes ought to " see the King in his beauty." 

These ears, too, have conveyed the message of 
mercy to a spirit in exile, making all within to leap 
for joy. They shall hear the harps of heaven, and 
all the infants sing about the throne. These lips 
have sung praises for a soul burdened with unutter- 
able bliss ; and, in great emergencies, these hands 
have clapped the loud hosannas ! 

These long-continued relations have established a 
deep and eternal affection and sympathy between 
the soul and body, which would seem cruel to dis- 
solve or violate. The body has shared with the soul 
in its struggles and triumphs — in its sorrows and 
joys. It seems sacrilegious to divorce the oneness 



IMMORTAL MECIIAXISM. 67 

of the being ; assigning one part to the cold tomb, 
forever, while the other is admitted to immortal 
bliss. Nay, verily ! they shall reunite on the hills 
of heaven. Take courage, brother pilgrims ! resur- 
rection shall make amends for the degradation of 
the tomb, at last ! 

But do not sinners hope for resurrection and im- 
mortality ? No ! The happiness arising from the 
hope of immortality lies quite beyond the scope of 
the sinner's being. It is true, he will think and 
hope and fear, in a kind of everlasting way. For, 
immortality in man is not an incidental thought ; it 
is a great truth in him, written with God's own 
hand — chiseled deep into his imperishable nature. 
But his present life — the boundaries of time — are 
made into an everlasting with him. Could he be 
traced in his farthest anticipations, 3011 would not 
find him coming within bell-toll of his own funeral. 
He is sure to stop this side of his own grave. Not 
but that he thinks of death, and perhaps owns a lot 
in the cemetery, but he never goes in that direction 
for bright hopes. How can he anticipate existence 
in eternity ? To him it is the dark beyond ; — not 
only beyond this life, but, alas ! it is beyond his 
hopes. If you can make a forever for him this side 
of death, he is happy. But in taking him beyond — 
O ! that dark beyond ! — bereaves him of all he has 
and all he hopes for. How can an unholy soul anti- 
cipate resurrection ? Look at what intervenes be- 
tween a living sinner and his eternal state. Who 



GS IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 

can describe his last hour of intense existence here, 
when his last sun sroes down with no morning be- 
yond ! when the ties of friendship break, and his 
last hope fails him, and he borne away into deeper 
and darker troubles still ! We may know somewhat 
of the last hour here, but who may speak of the sin- 
ner's first hour in eternity ! An hour with God the 
holy Judge ! An hour of piercing, searching Omni- 
science ! An hour of guilty dread and dark forebode ! 
Who may comprehend that word — Depaet ! Will 
you ask this poor lost spirit to hope for resurrec- 
tion ? As soon ask for double curse ! For, if his 
body is raised, it will come forth " to the resurrec- 
tion of damnation I" No, no ! it is but waking a 
new torment— the coming of a second damnation ! 
The sinner's first great curse is his sinfulness ; his 
second, heaviest doom is his immortality. Am I 
addressing an unsaved soul to-day? Let me warn 
thee of thy trouble ! It is true, you may degrade 
your nature — you may sear your conscience as with 
a hot iron, and harden your heart, and violate every 
virtuous instinct of your being ; but you cannot vio- 
late the law of your eternity. You ma}^ reason or 
cavil away the conditions of salvation, and scout the 
idea of hell, or laugh a convert out of countenance ; 
but the everlasting of thyself is thy match ! What 
wilt thou do with thy vast eternal self? What are 
your arrangements for entertainment when all the 
pastimes of earth are gone ; when all the hopes and 
interests outside of yourself sink to rise no more ? 



IMMORTAL MECHANISM. G9 

"What will you do with yourself? It's not, what 
will you do with God, or Christ, or angels, with 
heaven or hell ; but what will you do with you, 
yourself ? — abstract, unmitigated, but unending 
self? Here is thy trouble ! and, alas ! it is a home 
trouble ! ! 

Xot so with the Christian ; for, 

III. Thirdly. He is wrought for removal to that 
world for which he is designed. 

This removal of the Christian from one world to 
another, is one of the mysteries. For God will 
have him so depart as to add a new triumph to 
Jesus Christ. It is not enough that Christians live 
to God ; they are ordained to die in the same man- 
ner ; thus plucking triumph from the very teeth of 
the enemy. Instead of being torn away from this 
life, as if kidnapt and hurried off, leaving a wail 
in their track all the way to heaven, God will have 
his saints depart in holy serenity, if not in high ex- 
ultation. 

Suppose Jeff. Davis were sentenced to be hung, 
along with all that brood of vampires (which, how- 
ever, there is but little danger of taking place till 
some one not next of kin shall occupy the White 
House) ; but suppose Davis is on his way to the gal- 
lows ; all things are in preparation ; the officers are 
in attendance, with spectators numberless. There 
we behold the halter, cap and coffin— these terrible 
signs of justice. Every face is sad but one. Davis is 
the happy one, and all along that solemn march he 



70 IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 

shouts, " Southern Confederacy triumphant! triumph- 
ant! ! the victory is ours! — until just as the rope 
and cap are to be adjusted, the shouting culprit falls 
dead. Strange occurrence ! • The surgeon is called, 
and his decision is given. This is it: "Jefferson 
Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, was 
brought to his death by his excessive shoutings of 
triumph, while on his way to the gallows for the 
very laudable purpose of being hung." 

The points in this illustration are, that Davis, 
by this remarkable death by exultation, not only 
snatched his life from the halter, forestalling law, 
justice and government : but he turned defeat on 
his executioners, leaving the whole hanging cere- 
mony a solemn mocker}^ — faces sad for. naught, and 
tears made in vain, with nothing to do. This is 
often the predicament of death. He comes dashing 
down the path of life on his pale horse, swinging 
his scythe of thirsty blade, in all the airs of the king 
of terrors, to battle down the saints of God : wdien 
lo ! to his great consternation, the saint died before 
death got there ! — died of excessive exultations over 
death, thus plucking his life from the scythe of 
death, forestalling the mission of the king of terrors, 
leaving him to make his mock strikes only at life's 
shadow. 

Then, in other instances, it has seemed that death 
had been adjourned ; the holy triumpher holding 
the pale horse by the bit till the song could be cho- 
rused, with the last hosanna brought in. 



IMMORTAL MECHANISM. 71 

But you say, " I am not thus ; I am very auxious 
to live." Are you a saint, and yet anxious to live ? 
Very well, live on then ; that is your business now, 
but when it shall be best for you to die, if you are 
a true saint, you will be got ready. God has a way 
of so changing the weights of these scales, that from 
the steep down-poise, He can bring the balance to a 
dead level — standing so perfectly counterpoised 
between the two worlds, that one shall be in a strait 
to know which to choose. But there is a double 
process going on, affecting this balance-beam. It is 
not only putting out the lights here, but it is also 
increasing the light yonder : Not only dropping 
another name from the roll of life here, but it's 
adding another count to the saved there. So that, 
in an emergency, God can work both processes at 
the same time — rapidly poising thee toward the 
eternal state. 



PRAYER VINDICATED.* 

Job, xxi, 15 — " And what profit should we have if we pray unto 
Him ?" 

Although my text is found in the Bible, it is not 
the teachings of the Holy Spirit. It is rather the 
language of an unholy spirit. It contains an infidel 
sneer against prayer; a sneer quoted by Job from 
the wicked. 

It was a matter of perplexity with Job, as well as 
astonishment, that the wicked were so highly pros- 
pered ; especially when they were so insultingly 
wicked to God. They say, " What is the Almighty 
that we should serve Him ?" &c. 

From these insolent words, I shall take occasion : 
1. First, to notice two plausible infidel objections to 

* By the request of several Ministers, I give the following Sermon 
as arranged for preaching extempore. In the early part of my min- 
istry it was not difficult to go throngh with a sermon of fifty parts 
and over, without the aid of a scrap. But, in later years, as I write 
more, and have become somewhat sensitive as to the manner of dis- 
pensing truth, for elaborate and critical sermons, the plan presented 
here has been adopted. These headings or way-marks are printed 
on a card of thick paper, in similar sized type as seen at the end of 
this sermon. This card is my guide in the pulpit, and this is all 
the aid I ever used. These signs have less to do with the memory 
than with the imagination. Now, as strength and vigor decline, it 
would be a relief to read; and it ought to be lawful for one, half 
worn-out, to do so, provided the people would hear him; but, alas! 
X know not how! 



PRAYER VINDICATED. 73 

prayer. I say two objections ; because I know of 
but two plausible objections which infidels urge 
against prayer. 

1. 

The first which I shall mention, is an objection 
supposed to grow out of the uniformity of the laws 
of nature. 

This objection is used not only against prayer, 
but also against the truthfulness of prophecy and 
promise. According to Peter (2d Peter, iii, 4), it 
comes from the scoffers of the last days, who say, 
"Where is the promise of His coming? for since 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continued as they 
were from the beginning of the creation." 
OB. STATED. 

The objection consists in this : that while prayer, 
in some instances, at least, looks to the change or 
reversion of things in the natural world, through 
the divine power, yet if we except a few miracles, 
no such changes have taken place since the creation 
of the world. 

And notwithstanding men have been praying from 
the days of Abel down to the present time, yet no 
changes have taken place in the natural world as the 
result of prayer, or by any other means in a super- 
natural way ; as all the great changes can be ac- 
counted for on philosophic principles. God's hand 
has never yet been seen interfering with nature. 
PRAYER NO CAUSE. 

And no one expects to hear it assigned as a reason 

7 



74 PRAYER VINDICATED. 

for any event, that a saint is at prayer ; but that the 
event has taken place according to the laws of na- 
ture, and must have occurred precisely at the time 
and in the manner in which it did, had no saint been 
in existence, or prayer offered. 

PLAUSIBLE OB. 

Now this I admit is a plausible objection to prayer, 
and were this the correct view, and the whole view 
of the subject, it would seem that prayer is shut out 
of the system of creation and providence both ; that 
the world is so contrived as to make the answer to 
prayer impossible. 

TWO ARGU. 

Plausible, however, as this objection is, I expect 
to present two valid arguments against it. 
1 ARGU. 

First, it proves too much to be true. For if the 
unchangeableness of the world is such as to preclude 
the answer to prayer, it must of consequence pre- 
clude divine intervention. 

Hence, God has so arranged the laws of nature 
and the course of the world, as not only to shut out 
prayer, but He has also shut himself out — has posi- 
tively disfranchised himself from His own world, so 
far as intervention is concerned. The world must 
run on as it was wound up, and the idea of provi- 
dence is a chimera. This we should not like to be- 
lieve. So that the idea that the same Lord is rich 
unto all that call upon him, is a sad mistake. 



PRAYER VINDICATED. j0 

2 ARGIL 

My second argument against the objection is this : 
that the view which has been given of the unchange- 
ableness of the natural world, is a limited and igno- 
rant view of the subject. 

It is limited, because it does not take in the whole 
extent of the arrangement. 

It is an ignorant view, in taking it for granted 
that because God does not act visibly in directing 
the course of nature, that therefore He does not act 
at all, but leaves every law to its own course. 

ILL. 

As an illustration : Because in answer to the 
prayer of Elijah, God watered Mount Carmel in the 
natural way by the means of winds, clouds, &c. ; 
because all that was observable, was natural, there- 
fore, that which was not visible was natural also. 
And the rain came just in the same manner, and at 
the same time, that it would, had there been no 
Elijah in existence. Neither prayer nor God had 
anything to do in the matter. 

Although there was nothing supernatual in the 
cloud rising out of the sea, directing its course to- 
wards Mount Carmel, then the rain falling on the 
thirsty land ; although all this, which was visible, 
was as nature would have it, yet the Christian finds 
no difficulty in believing that He who sitteth in the 
heavens, found a place somewhere in the process to 
put His hand and give direction to some of the dis- 
tant laws which gave the rain. So that, notwith- 



76 PRAYER VINDICATED. 

standing when the results hove in sight of mortals, 
it was moving on in nature's wonted course, yet 
back of all that was visible, God met Elijah's prayer 
— ordained an answer through nature, and then, 
beyond the reach of astronomy, He adjusted the 
laws to the answer. 

And now, because the actings of God are invisi- 
ble, and the supernatural run into the natural before 
the process came in sight, a dim-eyed mortal looks 
up and says, " There is no God in that !" 
TRACE EFFECTS. 

Although as far as we have been able to trace 

effects to cause, we have detected no change or sus- 

pension of the laws of nature sufficiently striking to 

-amount to a miracle, shall we conclude that no 

changes take place beyond our vision ? 

SERIES AND CHAINS. 

For, notwithstanding all our experience and. sci- 
ence, it is evident that we can trace effect to cause 
but a very little way up the series. We soon run 
into the dubious unknown. And who can say but 
these chains of effects and causes, as they run on 
beyond the ken of mortal observation, all run into 
the hands of God, who, by secret touchings among 
the upper links, determines events on earth, and yet 
according to nature ? 

PRAYER ANSWERED. 

While the answer to prayer may be sensible and 
satisfactory to him who prays, yet it may not be so 
clear to mortal eyes in general that the event was 



PRAYER VINDICATED. 77 

in answer to prayer, for the reason that in running 
back the series of causes and effects, we find no 
place where nature was turned out of its course — no 
place where the answer to prayer began. Here lies 
the error of ignorance. 

CAUTION. 

Now let infidelity understand that we do not look 
for the answer to prayer to begin in the visible 
regions ; but we do expect that the answer will 
often end in sight of all ;— while the response to 
prayer may begin quite beyond the range of human 
observation ; anywhere between the point where 
observation ends and God begins. And no marvel 
if that is a great distance. 

SWEPT. 

The probability is that human science has not 
swept so near the precincts of the invisible as some 
may suppose. Therefore we will not judge the 
Lord by feeble sense, nor measure the deep unknown 
by mortal vision, and conclude, because we can see 
no farther, that we have seen up to the origin of 
all things. Nay ! — quite beyond the limits of finite 
reach — within the veil of God's own invisibility is 
the response to prayer given. There the process 
commences. There the laws of nature are put a 
going to the answer of prayer on earth. 
2 OB. 

The second objection alluded to is grounded on 
the unchangeable character of God. 

It is contended that prayer can h.ave no effect on 



78 PRAYER VINDICATED. 

Him who changes not, — who is the same yesterday, 
to-day and forever. In whom there is no variable- 
ness nor shadow of turning. As prayer cannot 
change Him who is unchangeable, therefore, prayer 
is useless. 

NOT. 

It is not supposed that God is changeable in His 
essential character. The answer to prayer does not 
require it. The most that can be said of God's 
changing is, that a change in man furnishes an occa- 
sion for a new manifestation of God. Not new, 
however, in the character of God, but new to him 
who has assumed a new attitude to God. 
THIEF. 

Who would accuse you of a change of character 
because you treat with contempt to-day, your old 
associate with whom you were intimate yesterday, 
when it was known that he committed a vile theft 
last night ? The change is not in yourself, but in 
him who has changed from an honest man to a thief. 
His theft was the occasion or excitement of your 
displeasure, not its cause. Hatred to theft belongs 
to you — it exists in your uprightness of character — 
it is the unavoidable result of your moral rectitude. 
No thanks to the thief that you hate tjheft, it- 
belongs to yourself; and whoever steals, will bring 
that hatred on himself. 

APPLY. 

It requires no change in God to hate sin. It be- 
longs to His essential character as much as truthful- 



PEAYER VINDICATED. 79 

ness does — it exists in His infinite holiness. Who- 
ever sins will excite that displeasure. 
MURDER. 

That civil government which defended me yes- 
terday from the attack of a murderer, cannot be 
charged with changing, because it hangs me to-day, 
when it is known that I murdered last night. It is 
the great change in my conduct which has called 
out the government in another form ; that is, in 
another form to me. 

II. Briefly state the philosophy of prayer. Or, to 
use the language of the text, show wherein prayer 
is profitable to man. 

PRAYER. 

Prayer is the honest language of a soul destitute 
of all things but sackcloth. 

OFFICE. 

A transaction in which the chief office of the 
tongue is to unload a soul freighted with want and 
desire. 

GOD AND SELF. 

Says one, "Prayer is the contemplation of God 
in contrast with self from the highest and clearest 
point of discovery. The infinite disparity diminishes 
— the illimitable chasm narrows by the soul's intense 
stragglings towards deity — faith is the power of 
the struggle." 

SENTENCE. 

In this sentence I apprehend may be found at 
least an intimation of the philosophy of prayer. 



80 PRAYER VINDICATED. 

Prayer is something more than an expression of 
penitence, want, desire, &c. It also implies a par- 
ticular state of mind. That which may, perhaps, be 
called a transitive state, or, a state of mind pro- 
duced by the Holy Ghost, favorable to holy transi- 
tion. Prayer as an exercise is the means of that 
transition. It is by prayer that the mind is trans- 
formed from self, and conformed to holiness and 
heaven. It is by prayer that the soul makes a 
transition from darkness to light — from weakness to 
power — from death to life • in short from self to 
God. 

SERIES. 

It is the process by which the soul goes up the 
holy series — from degree to degree, from glory to 
glory, until changed into the same image even as by 
the spirit of the Lord. , 

SHOWS. 

Prayer is not what it shows to be. It appears to 
be a set effort to pursuade the infinite. To reason 
the all-wise Being out of His judgment, or, to 
change the unchangeable in some of His purposes. 
But the effect is directly the reverse. It acts on 
him who prays — acting him up to the mind and will 
of the infinite. Prayer takes hold on God it is true, 
but not that God may be brought down to self — 
but that self may be brought up to God. 

The old illustration of the boat and dock is good. 
While the boatman, drawing on his line from the 
vessel seems to be pulling the dock into the river, 



PRAYER VINDICATED. 81 

yet the effect is to bring his boat to the dock. So 
in prayer, only that the action is two-fold, — the 
Spirit draws to Himself, while the believing soul 
appears to be acting in the opposite direction. The 
effect is to bring the moveable toward the immovable. 
LOOK. 

It is by prayer that God and man meet each other 
face to face. It is true, the contrast is great, but let 
the intense contemplation be kept up, and although 
the soul may seem to be unmeltable and unsubdua- 
ble, yet hold it up to the gaze — one must yield to 
the other. The unchangeable will transform the 
changeable to Himself. The mind shall emerge 
from its earth-born self, shaking dust out of its 
nature as it rises into spirituality. 
UGLINESS. 

The ugliness of depravity shall go out of thee. 
Revenge shall die in sight of its victim. Keep up 
the gaze and the transition shall be complete. 
DARKNESS. 

Darkness shall disappear. Yes, the light of that 
unveiled face shall struggle through to the deepest 
night of thy soul. Thy dungeon shall flame within. 
Pride shall be seen putting on sackcloth before God. 
Will shall coincide with will. Feature shall answer 
to feature — face to face, till every power God's 
impress shall feel, and all the soul become divine. 



82 PRAYER VINDICATED. 

PRAYER VINDICATED. 



I. 



Job xxi, 15. 



1. 
OB. STATED. 

PRAYER NO CAUSE. 

PLAUSIBLE OB. 

TWO ARGU. 

1 ARGU. 

2 ARGU. 
ILL. 

TRACE EFFECTS. 

SERIES— CHAINS. 

PRAYER ANSWERED 

CAUTION. 



II. 



PRAYER VINDICATED. 83 

SWEPT. 

2 OB. 

NOT. 
THIEF. 

APPLY. 

MURDER. 

PRAYER. 

OFFICE. 

GOD AND SELF. 

SENTENCE. 

SERIES. 

SHOWS. 

LOOK. 

UGLINESS. 

DARKNESS. 



SAINTS, THE LORD'S PORTION, AND 
THE REASON OF WORLDS. 

Psalms, iv, 3 — " But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is 
Godly for Himself!" 

My subject admits of a broad range, — it involves 
directly or indirectly all things and all worlds. It 
includes also a personal transaction. It presup- 
poses conviction, repentance, faith, conversion, con- 
secration, sanctification, adoption and glorification. 

My object on the present occasion is to trace out 
its more remote relations, with a view of enforcing 
the importance of the personal and practical duties 
here presupposed: 

The Godly set apart for the Lord ! 

And is this all ? Does this comprise the whole of 
the appropriations of the Lord, made to Himself of 
all the infinitude of His productions ? This is all. 
We have no intimation, either in nature or revela- 
tion that I know of, that any, of all the works and 
worlds which confront us at every turn, will finally 
accrue to God, and be garnered to eternity as a 
result, but the saints. 

Could we read up the records of eternity past, 
we should probably find that only two great leading 
ideas have been developed up to the present time. 
The first, which related to the production of angelic 
spirits, has been consummated long ago. The 



SAINTS, THE LORD'S PORTION. 85 

second which relates to holy human beings, is the 
present all-engrossing thought of heaven and earth. 
Even one idea, such as the infinite God, can origi- 
nate is enough to freight one universe ! 

Whether the first of these two ideas, viz : The 
production of angelic spirits was originally designed 
as an independent and separate interest is doubtful, 
but the present fact is that it is subordinate to the 
second. An emergency on earth, involving the 
peril of a godly man takes precedence of heavenly 
service. A saint in this vale of tears — persecuted, 
tempted, dejected, — requiring angelic ministrations, 
if need be, would adjourn the highest anthem 
heaven ever knew — in fact all heaven might be post- 
poned for a time for aught I know, without calamity 
— but to neglect a saint in this region, and shadow 
of death wrestling with principalities and powers 
one hour too long, might wreck an interest vast as a 
world. 

Do you suspect the economy of the world — the 
wisdom of an arrangement so vast with an income 
so small ? (It is natural at least to inquire if it 
pays.) I confess it has often occurred to myself 
that with the rate of the present income the system 
had better be closed up. But this is the thought 
of a fool, or, at least of one who knows nothing 
about it. To talk intelligibly on the question of 
pay, we should be able first to comprehend the 
income. I acknowledge for one, that a saint even 
here in his low estate is beyond my comprehension. 
8 



86 SAINTS, THE LORDS PORTION, 

I graduate his importance more by the outlay which 
has been made for him, than by what I know of his 
rank or destination. I look out into the vastitude 
of creations. I stand before the minute and the 
huge — the lofty and the low, and ask myself where 
is the product ? Where is the outlet of this system? 
What does all this mean ? Something must be 
produced somewhere by this vast concern. 

Contemplate this vast system of revolving spheres 
and changing seasons worked by an Almighty hand 
— along Avith the ministry of angels, the providence 
of God, the death of Christ, the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. I ask where is the outlet — what accrues to 
God from all this ? O ! if we could rise so high as 
to obtain a clear outlook upon the highway of holi- 
ness — that up-grade of life eternal, — could we see 
the ransomed of the Lord returning to upper Zion 
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads — 
could we see the everlasting doors give way, and 
the pearly gates lift up their heads to admit this 
influx of rarest glory — these trophies from death 
and hell — we might conclude to let the system run 
on. The outlet of God's great redeeming harmo- 
nies face the " New Jerusalem" gates. 

My hearers, have we a tolerable idea of the 
world in which we exist ? Have we so much as a 
faint conception of the high rank which this rolling 
globe occupies in the universe ? In human affairs 
we judge somewhat of a man by the number and 
rank of his attendants, and if this be a correct rule 



AND THE REASON OF WORLDS. 87 

here, what shall we say ? I walk out under this 
high archway at times bewildered, amid the surge 
of worlds in muffled march around this gorgeous 
man-home. How thick the ranks are ! 

It is said there were two full moons in the month 
of March last, and astronomers tell us that such a 
phenomenon has not been known since the world 
was made, of two full moons in one month. If this 
be so, what is the inference but this, that the first 
full series of the ponderous revolutions have only 
been gone through with once. Think of that, 
mortal, and hold thy breath ! Six thousand years 
bringing through the first figure in the dance of 
worlds ! 

A young man once gazing up into the everlasting 
Alpine peaks, at last spake three words — " I feel 
small." Take your station on some favorable pro- 
jection of this earth — -draw out your telescope to 
the last degree, and let this globe go once round, 
and then (if you are not crazy) tell what you have 
seen. Nay, rather, tell us what you have not seen 
— not much blank — all full ! As though some clay 
there had been a general huddle of worlds for the 
frontiers to pay their respects to God's favorite. 

It is said that some of the stars are so distant 
from us that their light has not reached us yet, but 
it is coming. I dont see how we dim-eyed mortals 
down here could know all that, unless some of the 
long tubes of astronomy have swept back so far as 
to meet this on coming day — this far-born Aurora 



88 SAINTS, THE LOKD's PORTION, 

Borealis surging through the distant tops of worlds, 
saying, "I am bound to see what I was made for, 
though late in attendance." Wonder if the nights 
are getting brighter as the rear-lights are coming in? 

Whether we get the impression of the mighty 
fact to-night or not, it is nevertheless true, that the 
universe is working to one great solitary idea. 
These stupendous systems harmonize with the in- 
tercessions of Jesus Christ on one result. The march 
of worlds and the death of Christ are of the same 
thought, and committed to the same interest. 

Revolving spheres and seasons run parallel with 
heavenly influences. Hence, at the time of the 
crucifixion, heaven and earth went into dark and 
awful ceremony over the event, — all nature holding 
its breath for three dreadful hours. 

After this imperfect attempt to trace out God's 
design in this vast outlay, I come now to notice the 
object itself, viz. : The Godly — the God-man, or the 
God-like, whom the Lord has set apart for himself. 

I shall first inquire wherein this setting apart 
appears. 

This setting apart has a high and far reaching 
history. We are not to look for it in the present 
acceptance of a holy soul in this life ; nor in the 
final "Come ye blessed of my Father." These are 
rather the results or consummation of a previous 
arrangement which dates back to original design. 

1. It appears first in his nature. In this lies the 
secret of the transaction. As in the physical world, 



AND THE REASON OF WORLDS. 89 

so in the spiritual world. Every creature and being 
is eudoAved with a nature adapted to the design and 
sphere of its existence. Here w T e come to a being 
made for God — spiritual and holy. 

Let me here stop to say to all unrenewed persons 
that there is an absolute necessity for your holiness 
— a necessity lying back of all commandments — 
back of all things in heaven or on earth. It lives 
in the great unbeginning God ! As you prove the 
necessity of water, from the nature and fins of the 
fish, so you prove the existence of God from 
the nature of man. 

Man is an egregious blunder — a calamitous mis- 
take, or, he is the great and grand presuppose of 
God. Not only does he prove the existence of God, 
but his religious aptitudes — his high aspirations — 
his immortal longings, with his deep, inborn sense 
of want, is proof that there either ought to be a 
God for this semi-celestial being, or, he ought to be 
made over, and made down to what there is for 
him. Either give him a great Supreme to love and 
worship, or, take the God — suppose out of him, 
and let him down to the brotherhood of brutes. 
Balance him some way, — either give him what his 
nature craves, or, take the immortal sigh for God 
out of him. For, if he is not so endowed and so 
formed as to come into fellowship with the high and 
holy, and find his heaven in him, he is the most 
unfortunate of all beings. 



90 SAINTS, THE LOKl/s PORTION, 

Unsaved man. There is no middle ground for 
you or me between the Infinite God and a mere 
animal. If I fail to come into holy delight in the 
great God as the element of my nature, the next 
great calamity of my being is, that I was not made 
a brute. God has put a celestial soar into man's 
nature, while depravity would make him a mere 
groundling of earth. 

Man's body, with bodily wants, are the mock and 
fraud of his immortality. He mistakes his body for 
himself. Here is the irrepressible conflict — the war 
of ages. A being ordained to a high and holy 
destination debased to the sphere and enjoyments 
of a mere animal. Yes ! and this is the sin of the 
day ! 

But we have not seen the full extent of this great 
unalterable. He is not only set apart to God, but 
he is also set apart from all other happine&s. 

Some natures in the animal kingdom are so 
organized that they exist in different elements. But 
the fish, for instance, is not only set apart to the 
water, but he is also set apart in nature from every 
other condition of life. So man is no amphibious 
being. He finds life for his soul only in God. He 
is not only made to God, but he is over made for 
every other life. O ye who seek for happiness in 
things corruptible ! I give you warning of trouble. 
You are warring against the great overmake of your 
nature. A sinner is not only a transgressor against 



AND THE REASON OF WORLDS. 91 

God's written law, but he is also warring against his 
own irrevocable nature. My dear friend, you can't 
succeed here ! You can't dissever the immortal from 
you yourself. 

2. Second : Man's endowment, along with his 
mysterious relations, mark him as a high elect for 
some marvelous purpose. 

The superadded nature of the material with the 
spiritual, make him the peculiarity of all things and 
beings. Spiritual beings and holy beings existed 
before man was. So also were creatures material 
created. Beings of pure spirit, free from matter, 
seem to be the natural production of the Infinite 
Spirit — scintillations from the central sun. Although 
we may not comprehend their origin or essence, yet 
we can see it possible for the Infinite to produce a 
finite like himself. Then when we come down to 
the endless species of animals, the lowest of which 
bring us to within a half step of the vegetable king- 
dom, we have a mystery it is true, — but it is a 
common mystery, lying along the line of common 
life, only a little higher up the scale of vegetable 
life. These productions and creations, both high 
and low, seem to be common work with the Infinite, 
exciting no great surprise it would seem ; but when 
matter and mind are made to mix and mingle in one 
— when dust aud deity meet — when God breathes 
into fashioned clay, and man awakes to double life, 
in one, there is a sensation through worlds ! From 



92 SAINTS, THE LORD'S PORTION, 

that event on, he is the marked problem of the 
universe ! ! All intelligences stand in awe of him, as 
the finale of worlds — the climax of Jehovah's works. 

Hence, w T hen the Son would redeem this fallen 
being, He took on Him the nature of man. Not 
only mortal flesh as a garb of His Divinity, but He 
took on the full mystery of the being — the two-fold 
nature — mind in union with matter. 

My hearers will maik the wonderful position 
made for man before he was brought forth. In the 
realms of God's throne and glory are the countless 
beings — all holy — all spirit — the sons of the morn- 
ing. Then, on the other hand, we have the myriads 
of worlds and works — of creatures and things all 
material, all corruptible, with no sympathy existing 
between these two only sections of the universe. 
Here stand the two only natures in solemn, mis- 
mated divorce. The chasm is broad — the brinks 
are abrupt. The highest organism on the corrupti- 
ble side we will call the domestic ox, — all coarse, 
fleshy, bony, hoofy, horned — eating grass. Then, 
when you go over on the other side, the lowest 
being we can find is an angel, all spotless and pure 
— all celestial and spiritual — mostly unlike the Infi- 
nite by being less. Here is a being subsisting his 
immcrtal essence on the light of the throne. Here, 
then, we stand — the universe in two great halves, 
with a great chasm between, uncrossed and uncross- 
able by any thing yet in existence. 



AND THE REASON OF WOELDS. 93 

Here we come to the marvel of all things- -the 
mystery all mysterious. The Infinite God in double 
natured man will cross this chasm from brink to 
brink, uniting these distant shores in sympathetic 
relation. O ! who am I that speak ! And who 
are these to whom I speak? I stand in awe of 
man ! My hearers, do you know the matter and 
make of yourselves ? Two of the farthest possible 
extremes of the universe meet in you, and the 
mystery of you, is the sympathetic^ blending of 
these contrasts. It is not the union of an angel 
with some highly organized creature. No ! The 
three — one God went back of section after section 
in the world of matter — passing all the animal 
tribes, and the vegetable kingdom, and organized 
matter, till He came to the frontiers of nothing, and 
there he gathered the dust — dust ! — within one step 
of chaos ! As though the infinite God would link 
his universe to the utmost verge, bringing a tribute 
to His throne even from old chaos. Thus we see 
the godly man is set apart in his position and rela- 
tions. He is related to the world of matter and the 
world of mind, — the greatest representative known 
— he is God's great cross-over by which the world 
of matter is made to heighten the world of spirits, 
bring'ino- tributes to the eternal throne back to the 
very suburbs of nothing. Yes ! the inspiration of 
the high piling continents, along with an eclipse in 
the heavens, go to the growth of mind, while old 



94 SADsTS, THE LOED's POETION, 

ocean in its solemn muffled surge is made to touch 
the throne in holy adoration through these set apart 



ones 



a I 



Man, in compound and complication, is vast ! 
Though he may not be called infinite in any one 
particular, yet taking him in his variety of nature, 
existence, attributes, capacity and enjoyments, along 
with his mighty contrasts, make him more infinite 
than finite; — the finite is confined mostly to one side 
of him. 

A redeemed, converted, sanctified, godly man is 
the greatest involvement of meaning and mystery 
out of deity. Look at his monstrous lapse, then at 
the stateliness of his recovery ! Go clown to the 
dark depths and degradation of his fall, theu set 
your spy glasses to the ranks and retinues of the 
white vested elders. Contrast his cold death with 
the influx of life eternal. Go from the low dust 
steep up to the Deity of the being. Contemplate 
his moral pollution, then see him presented to the 
Father without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing — 
exalted to the brotherhood of heaven ! We bury 
him in corruption — God unburies him incorrupt. 
He goes down mortal — he comes up immortal ! 

And now, unredeemed, unsaved neighbor, what 
shall I say of you ? What think you of all this ? 
Nay, rather, what think you of yourself? Do you 
not see that all this means you ? There are saints 
in this house to-night probably, who, but for you 



AND THE REASON OF WORLDS. 95 

would have been in heaven long ago. They are 
stopped here in your behalf to work with God, and 
with His worlds to recover you from ruin. O, be 
in haste to put yourself on the side of holy results. 
For a sinner is in conflict with God's designs in all 
his works ! He's a discordancy in heaven's harmo- 
nies. The perversion of Calvary and of worlds. 
He 's a suffered interdiction — a borne-with trans- 
gressor ! Get out of this discordancy ere you come 
between the upper and nether millstones. Come 
into harmony with the great moral currents of the 
universe. 

[The second sermon on this subject is omitted.] 



REPENTANCE. 

Acts, iii. 19 — ''Kepent ye therefore, and be converted, that your 
sins may be blotted out/' &c. 

As all have sinned, and come short of the glory 
of God, it becomes the duty of all to repent. A 
duty which we should regard as one of the greatest 
privileges conferred on sinners. 

That the holy, and yet offended God should pro- 
pose an expedient so merciful — so reasonable by 
which the ruined might be recovered, should be 
regarded a great favor. I, therefore, bespeak for 
my subject the attention and interest of all present. 

In the consideration of this duty and privilege, I 
shall first inquire what repentance is. 

Webster says, to repent is to change the mind in 
consequence of injury done by past conduct. The 
Latins defined it "growing wise again, or that by 
which the mind is restored to itself again." Another 
has defined it to be " an after-thought," (does not 
say what kind). 

Were I allowed but few words to express repent- 
ance in, and those not borrowed from Scripture, I 
should call it a practical contradiction of one's self — 
a reversion of the mind, by which it condemns to- 
day what it approved and practised yesterday. 

These definitions, although they may answer for 
sayings, or, for dictionaries, will not be considered 



REPENTANCE. 97 

sufficient for the pulpit. Repentance is of two 
kinds, viz. : carnal or worldly, and evangelical or 
spiritual. 

Carnal repentance is purely selfish, occasioned by 
a fear of apprehension and punishment. It is 
wrought in the mind by selfish considerations. " I 
shall be detected, and of course reproached, and 
perhaps punished by the laws of the land, therefore 
I regret having committed the offence." This re- 
pentance is caused by what the Scriptures call 
worldly sorrow, which worketh death. 

Evangelical repentance is the result of godly sor- 
row, wrought in the mind by the Holy Spirit, which 
worketh repentance unto life — leads on to life. This 
repentance is in reference not only to the injury of 
sin to ourselves, but also to the sinfulness of viola- 
ting righteous law, and offending a holy God, — it 
has reference to God as well as to self. 

Let us bear this distinction in mind, that while 
sorrow in itself is not repentance, yet it worketh 
repentance. Repentance not only presupposes sor- 
row for sin, but it also implies faith in the nature 
and consequences of sin as revealed in the Bible. 

Eepentance includes the great and supernatural 
act of turning from sin. "Let the wicked forsake 
his way," &c, &c. I say superhuman act. It is 
so — an act positively above the power of human 
nature, unassisted by the Holy Spirit. But let me 
be understood here. I am not now speaking of the 
sorrow of the world which may work a kind of 



98 REPENTANCE. 

repentance — a turning away from some sins in keep- 
ing with human nature. (I mean intelligent, elevated 
human nature.) For there is a refinement or eleva- 
tion in Christendom which is not godly ; for, while 
it" turns away from baseness — from coarse immorali- 
ties, it does not turn to God. For instance, it is not 
essential that the sabbath-breakers should be con- 
victed by the Holy Spirit to cure him of the visible 
desecration of that holy day. There is an influence 
this side of God — quite distant from Him, yet pro- 
duced indirectly by Him. There is a kind of re- 
fining twilight lying back against the distant dark- 
ness — bordering the clay of New Testament glory, 
sufficient to cure him of this vulgarity. I mean the 
influence of refined society among the unconverted. 
Bring that Sabbath breaker into respectable society, 
and he will turn away from outbreaking sins, &c, &c. 

I w T ish to say something like this, — that Christi- 
anity not only purifies the heart, but it also rectifies 
the life. It gives to the outer man an amiable finish, 
a noble bearing, a character which is pleasing to 
all mem Now these requirements of Christianity 
relating to the outer life, become not only the basis 
of civil law in christian nations, but also the standard 
of respectable society. This I call the twilight of 
the Gospel. But, in copying the outer adornments 
of Christianity, the inward holiness is often excluded, 
making the mere visible rules of religion to consti- 
tute the whole of vital godliness. 

But evangelical repentance is not only turning 



REPENTANCE. 99 

away from outivard sins which effect one's standing 
in respectable society, but also a turning away from 
jpride, love of the world, unbelief, &c. The true 
penitent sees sin to exist not only in the transactions 
of his hands and feet — his lips and eyes, but in his 
thoughts, affections and motives : he feels sin in his 
heart — sin against God. 

True repentance includes another superhuman act, 
viz : turning to God. "Let the wicked (not only) 
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 
thoughts, (but) let him (also) return unto the Lord, 
who will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for 
He will abundantly pardon." In this particular, 
perhaps, more than in any of the preceding, will 
appear the true character of repentance. If the 
penitent, in turning from sin, turns to God— turns 
to God in his humiliation and prayers — his cross 
bearing, his faith and obedience, — if the sigh of his 
heart is for pardon, because he has sinned against 
God and exposed his soul to death, let him be en- 
couraged to hope for mercy through Jesus Christ. 
But anything short of turning to God — let every 
sinner hear it, — anything short of turning to God, is 
a spurious repentance. 

That sinner who in turning from sin does not tarn 
to God, is only perverting his convictions. He is 
practicing a fraud on his concience — negotiating a 
false peace with the law of Heaven. He is merely 
buying the privilege of living in a carnal state — a 
state of worldliness and alienation from God, by 



100 REPENTANCE. 

striking out some of the vulgarities of sin, and 
ingrafting into the life some of the virtues of reli- 
gion ; while the heart remains unchanged and unsub- 
clued. It has only changed its ground of warfare; for 
where depravity has lost on one hand, it has gained 
on the other. While it has given up some of the 
baser practices of sin, it has made capital of this to 
increase its arrogance and pride. Yes, pride walks 
out of that heart on stilts, boasting that " I am as 
good as professors." 

2. Notice, secondly, the relation and importance 
of repentance as connected with man's salvation. 

Repentance, from the nature of things, precedes 
conversion and the blotting out of sins ; and is rela- 
ted to our salvation as an all essential prerequisite. 
This truth will appear to better advantage, perhaps, 
if we briny refer to the nature of pardon and con- 
version. 

The phrase in the text — "your sins may be blot- 
ted out " — is figurative, signifying the pardon of 
sins. It is taken from the ancient custom of keep- 
ing accounts. Instead of balancing indebtedness 
with credits, as we do, when the payment was made, 
the charge was blotted out. Hence, the custom of 
blotting was of great importance in the practice of 
book-keeping. (Apply.) Pardon is a work done 
for us, by which the sinner is restored to the favor 
of God. The first effect of pardon is to change the 
relations of the sinner to God, from that of a rebel, 
to the relation of a friend and servant. To place 



EEPENTANCE. 101 

him back where he would have been had he not 
sinned. 

But a change in the sinner's relations avails him 
but little while the heart remains unrenewed. Hence 
conversion always accompanies pardon. Conversion 
is a work wrought in us by the Holy Ghost — renew- 
ing the moral nature ; by which the mind not only 
receives power to obey God as a christian, but is 
capable of delight in that service. 

The importance of repentance, yea, the absolute 
necessity of repentance in order to pardon and sal- 
vation, appears in this : 

Pardon, being the restoration of the sinner to the 
favor and affection of the offended God, — placing 
him back into the same relation and position which 
he would have occupied had he not sinned, it must 
be obvious to all, that this could not be done with- 
out an essential change in the sinner. Otherwise 
the holy, unchangeable God would not onlv be 
guilty of change himself, in receiving to His embrace 
to-day the very thing He rejected with fearful male- 
dictions yesterday, but he would be compromising 
His holiness. Shocking supposition ! For the holy 
God to pardon an impenitent sinner would be the 
same as fellowship between Christ and Belial. It 
cannot be ! No ! never ! It is an act too base — too 
corrupt even for respectable sinners to do. Yes, 
sir, it is a degree even below depravity. How then 
can the infinitely holy God come down to such base- 
ness ? 



102 REPENTANCE. 

Let me illustrate the case. The most of persons 
have a certain standard of morals, or uprightness 
for themselves and others. There is a standard for 
the minister — one for the church-member, and an- 
other for the prominent leading men among the 
unconverted. Now, suppose any of these should 
violate these rules — this standard, then should he 
justify himself in it, and even intimate his purpose 
to repeat it, could you forgive him ? I do not ask, 
could you treat him civilly. I do not ask if you 
could refrain from hating him — wishing him cursed, 
— that is another thing ; but, could you forgive 
him ? Could you receive that person into your con- 
fidence — your favor and affection in the same degree 
that you could but for this offense ? Can you esteem 
him as highly, and treat him as cordially ? No, you 
could not do it! "No, but a Christian,' 7 you say 
"could." Why could a Christian? "Because he 
is better than I am — has more of a forgiving spirit," 
&c. That the Christian is better is the great reason 
why he could not do it at all. You could forgive 
him if you were base enough. And the fact that 
you cannot forgive him without repentance is evi- 
dence that you occupy a higher degree in the scale 
of morals than he does. It takes all but a devil to 
forgive an offender without repentance. Now, the 
holy God has established a standard of moral recti- 
tude for man, — a standard, too, which applies not 
only to outward morals, but also to inward holiness. 
All men have come short of this required rectitude — 



REPENTANCE. 103 

all have failed, hence all are included in sin and 
unbelief. 

But, through the sacrifice and merits of Jesus 
Christ, provision has been made for the pardon of 
the repenting transgressor. But many sinners refuse 
to repent. What can be done ? They cannot be 
pardoned. There is not such a possibility within 
the perogatives of Heaven. It 's beyond the juris- 
diction of Divine power. The reason is that the 
sinner is wedded to himself. As a sinner he holds 
on to his own way. He will break with truth — 
with ministers, christians and God before he will 
break with himself. He is so careful of his de- 
pravity that he will not even offend the pride of his 
heart. And as to his will, it must not be crossed 
even for the sake of Heaven. How can he be par- 
doned ? If God receives him into His favor and 
affection, He must fellowship his sinfulness also, for 
there is no parting here. 

Unsaved man ! Without repentance you are as 
far from the favor of God as hell is from heaven. 
There is an absolute impossibility of your salvation. 
If the Holy Ghost cannot recover you to repentance, 
He cannot pardon you ! 



MAN A MORAL FAILURE! 

Fsawis lxxxix, 47 — " Wherefore hast thou made all men in vain V 

We should bear this in mind, that the text does 
not say that man was made for vanity. In that case 
it could hardly be said that he was made in vain. 
We are not apt to pronounce an article made in 
vain when it precisely answers the purpose for 
which it was made. Therefore, the text cannot be 
charged with a reflection on the character of God. 
It does not state how man was made, or what the 
design of his first creation was. It merely states a 
fact in the form of a question, viz. — that man is 
made in vain — that he does not come up to the 
design of his Creator. 

The text may be viewed in the light of an excla- 
mation of surprise. 

The Psalmist understanding the original design 
of God in man's creation — then looking over the 
history of the world — the various tribes and nations, 
and finding none (when left to themselves) coming 
up to the object of their creation — breaks out with 
astonishment and inquires why it is so — why God 
has made a race capable of so great a failure. Or, 
since it is so, that man has perverted himself, and 
frustrated the design of his creation, why it is God 
permits his world to be cumbered with a race so 



MAN A MORAL FAILURE. 105 

useless and vain, — perverted not only in part, but as 
a whole. No tribe or nation found where brother 
has not dealt treacherously with brother, where 
neighbor has not hated neighbor, and man his fellow 
slain. Truly this world in its moral aspects presents 
a sad picture of humanity. 

Perhaps the subject of the text may be expressed 
in the following proposition, viz. : 

Man in his fallen state a moral failure. 

In the consideration of this subject, I shall, 

1. First, view this failure in its entireness, or 
totality. 

But if we would be convinced of the fact that 
man has failed to answer the end for which he was 
created, we shall need ascertain his rank in the 
scale of beings, and the design of God in his crea- 
tion. 

Man is not a creature of chance, having blundered 
into the world unbidden, no one knowing from 
whence. Neither is he an incident in creation, — a 
mere episode thrown in to fill out the rhyming of 
creation's song — to make meter in the six day's work 
of power. God made him ! God made him of 
choice — on purpose — with a specific design ! He 
was not only designed as the last production of 
omnific power, but he was especially designed as the 
climax of the world — the crowning perfection of 
the system. 

We are warranted in the belief that man consti- 
stituted the dear object which occupied the vision 



106 MxVN A MORAL FAILURE. 

of the Infinite before chaos was, — before the great 
foundations were laid, or earth received her frame ; 
that which the Creator was working the world up 
to in the different and rising degrees of its perfec- 
tions. Whoever considers and treats himself merely 
as part and parcel of this world offers an insult to 
his own nature and being. For, if man is only a 
part of this mundane system, he is the most super- 
fluous part of all others, for the mighty whole was 
finished and pronounced very good, before man was 
brought forth. The system was a perfection with- 
out him ; that is, as a system of means. 

Man then, instead of being an appendix of the 
world like the last flourish of a pen, or, an after- 
thought tacked on to creation after it was finished — 
instead of his belonging to the world at all as a part 
of a system of means, he occupies the rank of a 
great sublime result of all other things. He is the 
only title of creation's page — the meaning of all 
things. And whoever lets himself down from this 
position, taking rank with other parts of creation, 
merely laboring, sleeping, eating, drinking — living 
and dying like an animal, then and there he reduces 
himself to a mockery in the world — a burlesque on 
creation. He is made in vain. 

If man belongs to the world as a part of, a system 
of means, unto Avhat section of the great wdiole has 
he ever contributed ? When did he ever help the 
sun out of an eclipse, or quarter the moon ? When 
did he change the winds, or raise the fogs of t^" 



MAN A MOEAL FAILURE. 107 

morning ? Are the fowls of heaven beholden to 
him for their free vibration, or the fish of the sea for 
their sportive happiness. What animal tribe or 
insect race but would be full as well off, and many 
much better, if man had not been known. 

But how is it when we reverse the question ? 
What section, part or tribe of this world, but that 
contributes to man ? From the stars to the centre 
of the earth — in short the whole world was made 
for man. Cowper says, 

" 'Twere all bootless waste, 
Power misemployed. 
Munificence misplaced, 
Had not the author dignified the plan, 
And crowned it with the majesty of man." 

When a vessel is marred in the hands of the 
potter, it may be worked over into another vessel, 
either of honor or dishonor, without any great loss 
for its marring. Although a beast might be dis- 
qualified by his blemishes for sacrifice anciently, yet 
for other purposes he would be none the worse for 
these defects. 

A farmer's child crippled in youth may be spoiled 
for the occupation of his father, it is true, but for 
other pursuits he might turn himself to good advan- 
tage. 

An edifice shook to the ground by an earthquake 
is quite a loss it is true, yet half its value may 
remain in its ruins. And, though one quite equal 



108 MAN A MORAL FAILURE. 

to the first may not appear, yet something respecta- 
ble may yet arise from the rubbish. 

But in man is found a specimen of workmanship 
so complicated, so delicate and mysteriously con- 
trived, that if he is spoiled he cannot be made over 
into something else. And even if he could throw 
off his spiritual birthright, and be made over into 
some other creature or thing, it might be difficult 
to find a want for any other creature or thing in 
creation to make him into. The species are all sup- 
plied as far as we know. The scales and grades are 
all full. There is no break in the scale from chaos, 
and nothing all along the rising degrees, till you 
reach the baboon, which is called the highest form 
of mere animal. 

And suppose there were many vacancies, what 
would it avail to supply them with man, leaving his 
place vacant ? What would be the use of patching 
the lower degrees to the loss of the highest. 

Strike out man and you break the climax of the 
world. You open a breach in the gradation of 
things and beings high up the scale. A break so 
high and broad that from baboons and monkeys, the 
highest species of animals, we must cross over and 
up as by one step to angels. Man is the desidera- 
tum of creation. Remove him and the beauty and 
harmony of the system would be spoiled. Yea, 
more ! He is the only connecting link between 
matter and mind, — between the literal and spiritual 



MAN A MORAL FAILURE. 109 

worlds. That which holds the universe in sympathy 
from chaos and atom up to God. Break this link 
and all creation sinks away from vast importance, 
down to sublime nonsense. 

Man was made for a specific purpose, and assigned 
to an important and peculiar position, from which 
if he falls no provision has been made to supply the 
vacancy. Neither is there any place for him to fall 
to. He did fall — most ruinously fall, and in pro- 
viding for his recovery, a great outlay has been 
made. Yea, more time was occupied in making out 
the redemption price of man than would be required 
to make seventeen hundred worlds just like this, 
man and all. And yet God held on to the wreck, 
putting the whole universe into the service of re- 
covering the ruins. 

O ! what a work to save ruined man ! 

What I wish to say is this, that if man is spoiled, 
he is spoiled in the full sense. If he sinks, he sinks 
not to the grade of baboons, but to the doom of 
devils. If he does not answer the great original 
design, he can be turned to no possible account in 
time or in eternity. He is a total failure. He is 
made in vain, and must stand an eternal unmitigated 
curse to himself. 



10 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. * 

Eccl. xi, 9 — " Rejoice young man in thy youth, and let thy heart 
cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of 
thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes : hut know thou that 
for all these things God will bring thee into judgment." 

Dr. Claek in his comment on this text, says : "It 
is in the order of a most gracious God that the 
young shall rejoice in their youth, but they should 
make such a moderate use of all their enjoyments 
that they may not be confounded in the day of 
judgment." 

It is no doubt lawful for the young to appear and 
feel youthful. To cherish that sprightliness of 
thought and action — that buoyancy of spirits so 
peculiar to that period of life ; but it is also impor- 
tant that in the heat of youthful blood the Creator 
should be remembered. 

But some of the phrases of the text can hardly be 
applied to innocent youthfulness. For it speaks of 
a young man walking in the ways of his heart, and 
in the sight of his eyes. A short, but impressive 
way of describing that irreverent, reckless course of 
sinning into which some plunge even in youth, set- 
ting at naught the counsel of God, — braving every 
restraint until God gives them up to the gratification 
of their depraved natures, saying "go on in your 

* Preached at Westport, also at Cohleskill, N. Y. 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. Ill 

own way," but as you break away from your Gocl, 
and dash off to ruin take this fearful truth with 
you, — u know this one thing, that for all this God 
will bring you into judgment" 

Leaving the phraseology of the text here, I shall 
now proceed to the consideration of three proposi- 
tions, viz. : 

I. Contemplate a young man in his general rela- 
tionships. 

What is a young man? — what is his position ? — 
what are his responsibilities ? 

Young men are not only the hope of parents, 
they are also the hope of the nation. Young men 
in an eminent sense may be termed successors. Not 
merely as that term relates to natural descent, by 
which the sou steps into the tracks of his father, 
assuming his name and perogatives in the family 
affairs, &c. ; but young men are successors in the 
church and in the nation. 

Our present young men will soon be entrusted 
with our great universal interests. They are to 
become the guardians, the supporters and perpetua- 
tors of our civil and religious institutions — institu- 
tions which have grown up under the fostering care 
of heaven — institutions which have cost the blood 
and sweat of our fathers, the growth of six thousand 
years. I say six thousand years ! For I am far 
from supposing that our institutions date no farther 
back than Pilgrim's and Plymouth Rock. Yes ! 
young man, this ponderous accumulation of the labor, 



112 RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

the anxiety, the prayer, the sweat and blood ; the 
miracles and mercy of sixty centuries are coming 
into your hands inevitably. Yes, they are coming 
into your hands to wax or wane, to rise or fall, and 
go over to the next generation with your impress on 
them. Are you ready as a class for the momentous 
trust ? 

2. But great and alarming as these responsibilities 
are, you have the wherewith to meet them. For 
you are not only successors in responsibility but also 
in inheritance. 

And let me say that your inheritance will be 
greater than that of your fathers. The world is 
increasing not only physically, but its intellectual 
and moral capital is augmenting every generation. 

The distant ages have been working all along up 
to this grand climax of the series, and you occupy 
vantage ground, superior to all who have gone 
before you. You stand upon an eminence higher 
than the highest have known, for you have the 
advantage of all that has gone before. The good 
of six thousand years more or less enters into the 
intellectual and moral resources of the present 
generation, augmenting mind and giving bias to soul. 
Yes, the distant years have had to do in giving form 
and expression to your very countenance, directly or 
indirectly in expanding your intellectual powers. 
Some of the great scientific facts were discovered 
the other side the flood — facts that have added a 
cubit to your intellectual stature. 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 113 

You are a plant whose root runs back to antedilu- 
vian soil, being nourished by the culture of every 
generation. 

And let no intelligent young man delude himself 
with the thought that he has grown up in a day, — 
grown up of himself, and out of debt for himself — 
except, perhaps, to parents and parental home. Al- 
though this debt might exhaust a grateful heart, and 
lay thee at thy father's feet in humility. And this 
gratitude thou art no doubt pleased to cherish. Yet 
let me notify thee, clear young, man that there are 
debts against thee lying the other side of father's 
house. If thou could'st be analyzed spiritually we 
should find in thy growth the contributions of other 
generations. 

For instance, that inveterate hatred to slavery 
which forms a part of thy moral self, as it were, 
originated in part at least, in the history of Egypt 
with her plagues and slaves. 

Again, thy faith in the providence of God, feeble 
though it may be, was first inspired by reading the 
wonderful deliverances of Shadrach, Meshach and 
Abednego, and of Daniel, Peter and Paul. 

Then that high sense of justice and righteousness 
which constitutes a fundamental element in thy 
moral self, is to be attributed in part, at least, to the 
history of Joseph — the pit and the coat of many 
colors. That burning indignation which you cher- 
ished long ago against the brethren of Joseph has 
had something to do in building up your rectitude. 



114 RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

Yes, a part of thyself dates back to the scenes of 
Dathan. 

Many of the sparkling, soul-stirring truths which 
we call ours, first loomed up in the fog of Judea — 
truths, too, which have made thee mostly what thou 
art. The intellectual electricity — the fire and stir 
of this late day, had its battery at Jerusalem. The 
shocks began in the tongues of fire, falling first 
on Parthians, Medes and Elamites. Then Gentile 
dumbness spake and lo ! we have caught the inspi- 
ration. 

Yes, young men, the moral pulse which we feel 
to-day, is but the effect of the distant throbbings on 
the cross. 

Friends, 1 speak a cutting truth when I say that 
what there is of you and me above a besotted Hot- 
tentot is more the product of parents, ministers and 
ages past, than it is our own. Shall a young man 
then exalt himself in the vanity of his heart with 
the thought that he is the erection of himself? 
That he has gotten himself this refinement, this 
intelligence and respectability ? Let him pay his 
debts to parents — let him settle his account with 
Washington, and Luther, and Wesley and Calvin — 
with Paul and Abraham, with Angels and Jesus 
Christ. Yes, sirs ! Pay your tribute to six thou- 
sand years — cancel your obligations to heaven and 
the church of God, then if there is enough left of 
thee to feel and speak, I think from deep prostration 
thou wilt exclaim — " I am not my own I" 



EESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 115 

Let no one suppose I have no design in all this. 
I am aiming at a deep root in the depraved heart ; 
that which stands more in the way of the salvation of 
these young men just now, perhaps, than anything 
else, — I mean that vanity — that high conceit of self 
so peculiar to young men from the age of 15 to 25. 
Yea, and young women also. 

It is no reproach to you, my friends, for me to say 
that the more you know, the less you will think of 
yourself. It is the experience of older ones. It is 
the experience of myself. 

From these considerations, you will be able in 
part to account for your responsibilities with refer- 
ence to the present and future. And it behooves 
you to prepare yourselves by faith and holiness for 
the great coming emergencies. For, on you as a 
class will devolve the work of carrying our great 
interests over to the next generation. Should the 
world falter in your hands — should Christianity 
wane with you, the fire go out on her altars, her 
sanctuaries left desolate, and the heathen neglected, 
you will excite the malediction of the holy race all 
along back to ancient Abel ; for Abel even has an 
interest in the Christianity of to-day. His faith and 
experience is speaking in the church now, and has 
its effect in your heart and my heart. "What a 
tremendous truth is this ! 

And is it so ? Look off the other direction into 
the future ! Will the prayers and labors of these 
christians — will this sermon even so strike into the 



116 RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

future as to affect unborn generations ? It seems so. 
For, if the distant waves of holy influences have 
rolled up to us, will not ours, if right, increase the 
momentum of that swell which is bound to the 
onward, distant shore ? For even the smallest bark 
on life's tumultuous ocean will leave a track behind 
forevermore. The lightest wave of influence set in 
motion extends and widens to the eternal shore. 

" We who go before then should take our bear- 
ings carefully, as one mistake may wreck unnum- 
bered barks that follow in our wake." And are not 
these young men and women among those who go 
before, at least to some extent ? Look at the many 
little ones who are copying thy steps to a fraction. 

II. Second : A young man perverted. 

What is a perverted young man ? In short, he is 
one who adopts himself as the motto of his life, and 
makes his own gratification the measure of his hap- 
piness. 

And is uot this the doctrine of the text ? Living 
to one's self. Just acting according to the groveling 
desires of a fallen nature. 

Belittled down to the diminutive idea of self, — 
making self the sum I am created for. 

Do you reply "we are trying to live to a higher 
end ? Temperate, industrious, benevolent and 
moral." Good ! — very good so far ! But know 
this, that the world has not traveled up to its 
present position with the aid of principles no higher 
than those found in the creed of the moralist. It is 



KESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 117 

Christianity ! Hear it friends ! — it is Christianity 
in others that has produced morality in you. The 
amiableness of your character — your respect for the 
Bible — your morality and benevolence are not self- 
caused, they are the reflex power of religion in 
others. It is the twilight of gospel day mingling 
with darkness. 

Christianity has a claim not only on }^our property 
and your hearts, but on your intelligence and re- 
spectability. And if you are living to yourself 
merely and not to Christianity, and the good of 
others, you are a tax on the world — a drain on the 
energies of the church of God. Is it nothing to 
you, young men, that there are two young women in 
the church and Sunday school, and Bible class to 
one young man? (Since this sermon was preached 
I am happy to say that this disparity is very much 
lessened.) Is it nothing to us men in general that 
there are vastly more females in the church gene- 
rally than there are males ? Is it nothing to us as 
a sex, that there are ten men in our prisons and 
penitentiaries to one woman ? Is it nothing to thee 
young man that thy mother prays for thee ? 

Is it nothing to thee unconverted husband that 
thy wife is toiling for eternal life against thy influ- 
ence ? — taking the charge of those little immortal 
ones all alone ? Are women to be the conservators 
of the world ? Are women to grapple with the 
masculine power of sin in men holding us out of 
debauchery and heathenism by their holiness and 



118 RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

decision ? Then daughters of Zion execute your 
high commission ! 

III. Thirdly : A perverted young man being 
judged. 

If the rule of judgment should proceed on the 
principle laid down by Him who is to judge at last, 
viz. : That the requirement will be in proportion to 
what has been given ; we have the data from which 
to estimate every man's guilt. 

How much of light and truth, of patience and 
forbearance in God ; of privilege and advantage, 
have been perverted ; how much moral capacity of 
intelligence and talent have been wielded against 
religion and God, — yea, against the very religion 
which directly or indirectly has given him this over- 
natural capacity and power which he turns against 
God, and in favor of depravity and Satan ! I say 
overnatural, for no one left to himself grows to 
these dimensions. As I have remarked before, sub- 
tract from us all that Christianity has done for us, 
and indirectly added to us, and we should be left 
besotted heathens, hardly capable of clothing our- 
selves. 

Now, young man, suppose this were your condition 
to-day, how much harm could you do in the world ? 
Just as much as any idiot does, and no more, for 
that is what you would be called. The morals of 
old or young would be safe against your influence, 
for you would have no influence — here in Christen- 
dom at lcost. 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 119 

While it is true that the rejection of Jesus Christ 
as the remedy for sin will stand as the guilty cause 
of thy ruin, yet the measure of that ruin will be 
determined by the capacity of thyself in connection 
with the moral force resisted and perverted to the 
ends of sin. 

P. S. — As I have decided to put this sermon (which was arranged 
in 1853, and preached hut twice since,) into my hook, I wish here 
to add (if I am considered old enough) a word of fatherly exhorta- 
tion. 

I began my religious course when a mere boy, 
only fourteen. That, in that age of the world, was 
considered very young. I am now 59, and cannot 
look for many more years of vigorous labor. I may 
safely say that the salvation of men has been the one 
great anxiety of my soul and life. And now, youug 
men, as I must give my place to others soon, and 
while I feel cheered with the prospect that it will 
be kept good — yea, more than good — for as the 
ranks grow thin at one extreme, they thicken at the 
other — and then a good proportion of the new 
comers into the kingdom are young men — a cause 
of great hope and rejoicing , and then the young 
men of this day (as I have said before in this ser- 
mon,) have more capacity than those of my early 
days, they start off with a greatly increased capital 
for their high mission work, — with all this which is 
bright and cheering, there is also a dark side to the 
youthful period of this day. It is this : That a 
hardened conscience and irreverence is reached so 



120 RESPONSIBILITIES OF YOUNG MEN. 

soon — a reckless breaking away from the restraints 
of parents and God so young. And, according to 
my observation, these dark signs have increased to 
a greater extent among girls and young women for 
the last few years. And now, my young friends, I 
must leave you, but do restrain the evil in you, — ■ 
yea, crucify it out of you, and set yourselves right 
with the great God before that terrible change of 
administration takes place, from mercy to justice, — 
from probation to irrevocable doom. 

And now, may the God of my youth bless the 
young people, and make the reading of this sermon 
a blessing, as it has been made in being preached. 
Amen! 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.* 

PART FIRST. 

Rev. xx, 12. — " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God, and the hooks were open; and another book was open, which 
is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things 
which were written in the books, according to their works." 

The scriptures very clearly predict & final, general 
judgment. 

The necessity of a general judgment must appear 
obvious to all believers in a moral government. It 
is seen: 

1. In the complicated relationship of man. 

2. In the diffusiveness of his character, — that he 
is capable of influencing other minds for weal or wo. 

3. It is seen in the want of equity in the present 
administration of the world. The instances where 
justice and judgment are meted out in the present 
life are rare ; so that if there be no hereafter retri- 
bution, it could hardly be said that the Judge of all 
the earth does right. This is not the seat of justice 
and judgment, but eminently the world where 
mercy and truth meet together, where righteousness 
and peace embrace each other, — where God mani- 

* Preached at a Camp-meeting at Mooers, 1852, and at the great 
Camp-meeting at Sandy Hill, N. Y., in 1857, at which there were 
judged to be twenty thousand people present. 
11 



122 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 

fests long forbearance and patience as in no other 
world. 

"Were each an isolated being, living and dying 
apart from all others, perhaps we might be judged 
separately and finally, directly after death. But as 
it is, no individual has a separate and solitary exist- 
ence. No individual can be comprehended histori- 
cally by himself. 

Human existence is not a chain of so many links, 
but a net-work — a woven web running through the 
ages and dispensations — relation intersectieg rela- 
tion, relation crossing relation — a perfect net-work ; 
so that, although an individual is taken away by 
death to another sphere, he is only removed as the 
fountain. The streams are left, and left flowing. A 
stream sent out from its fountain, either literal or 
moral, is only indebted to its fountain for its origin 
and outlet ; the flowing is its own, independent of 
its fountain. The closing of a fountain may be but 
a trifle, but who is equal to the streams ? Who can 
say to the distant out-lettings "return ye, and it is 
clone ?" To prostrate an individual, and hush him 
still in death, is quickly done, but to gather him up! 
Oh ! when can he be gathered up ? For he has 
gone out in word and act, — in soul emittings — in 
moral breath ! 

Hence, the necessity of deferring the final judg- 
ment to the closing up of moral action. For, we 
are not only accountable for our action, but also for 
its effects. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 123 

A very remarkable discovery has been made of 
late for the detection of murder. It is said that by 
photographing the e} r es of a murdered man you will 
bring out the visage of the murderer. 

Could souls ruined be photographed so deep as to 
reach the cause of that ruin, we should bring out 
first of all a suicide — the self-murderer would appear 
in his own blood, as no soul ever went to ruin with 
innocent hands ; for there is no power out of us 
equal to our destruction, independent of our guilt. 
There, grouped around this self-murderer, would 
appear the accessories — relations, neighbors, unholy 
church members, and no marvel, if distant Tom 
Paine and Voltaire appeared as alive to-day and 
acting. 

So of the redeemed and saved. Could we bring 
out all the actors in that holy process by which the 
saint reached his blessed welfare, we should find not 
only the Lord Jesus Christ the procuring cause of 
the whole, but the faithful minister who preached 
to us — the saints who pnvyed for us, and holy 
parents who laid their hands in blessing on our 
heads, and with tearful eyes looked to God for our 
salvation when but young. Then, if we could let 
down a little more sky-light on this taking, y^e 
should bring out Wesley, Paul, Peter, Mary, Anna 
the prophetess, and Daniel and Abraham — and last 
of all, Abel the first saint, by conversion, appears ; 
all, and many more, contributors to the holiness of 
the saints to-day. 



124 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 

Suppose I am a good Christian. There 's but 
little of me of which to boast at that. Subtract all 
the contributions of others from me — dissect the 
faith and prayer — the sighs and patience of saints 
in heaven, and saints yet on earth out of me, and 
what should I be ? 

Yes ! Abel has fruit in me ! And the three 
Hebrews who dared the fiery furnace in the name 
of God, have put daring and radicalism into my 
soul. And Daniel, who prayed as he did aforetime, 
King Darius' lions to the contrary notwithstanding, 
has added a cubit to your moral grandeur, my 
brother ! If you are a Christian, you are an off- 
shoot from the root that runs back to antediluvian 
soil. Those old saints, who thousands of years ago, 
exchanged sheep-skins and goat-skins for robes of 
immortal wear, have an interest in the saints of this 
clay, and it is our prerogative to enhance the sum of 
their glorification. Although their character has 
been decided, and they admitted to their reward, 
yet the sum of that reward, the ages are to make 
out. 

So of the wicked. Their character has been pro- 
nounced, and they have entered into the torment of 
the rich man's flame ; but the amount of that tor- 
ment comes from the extent of their wickedness — 
the final suming up of soul-ruin. Hence, the neces- 
sity of postponing the final judgment till the pro- 
cesses are through, and character shall have reached 
its full measure. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 125 

The Scriptures uniformly attribute to Christ the 
office of presiding over that great and last assem- 
blage of the human race, — being of old ordained to 
be the judge of quick and dead. But, before speak- 
ing of the Judge, it may be well to allude to some 
of the circumstances and events preceding and 
attending that great transaction. 

1. We will first enquire where this great meeting 
and last parting will take place. 

Some suppose this earth will be the place of final 
judgment. The scriptures represent that it will 
take place above the earth, as in the verse preceding 
the text : " And I saw a great white throne, and 
Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 
the heaven fled away, and there was found no place 
for them." After this passing away, the judgment 
proceedings are represented as commencing. Then, 
in 1st Thess., iv, 16, "For the dead in Christ shall 
rise first, then we which are alive and remain, shall 
be caught up together with them in the clouds, to 
meet the Lord in the air." 

As the beings to be judged are to be gathered 
from heaven, earth and hell, the judgment may be 
fixed in the neighborhood of these three worlds, 
somewhere in midspace, off in some retired section 
of the universe, above the interruption of falling 
planets — of rolling heavens and smoking earth, high 
above the disturbances of things, will Christ estab- 
lish His judgment seat, overhanging the poles, — 
there erect His great white throne, and close up His 



126 THE GENEKAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 

transactions with the human race, — then and there 
pronounce the doom of generations vast, — and de- 
liver up the kingdom to God. 

2. Second — Who will be there ? 

The text says, " small and great." All grades, 
characters and nations j the totality of Adam's race. 

Manslayers. The great man-monsters who have 
revelled in carnage, and waded ankle deep in blood ! 
The iron hearted Pharaoh — the king slave-driver of 
olden times. The cruel Herod. Xerxes, that world 
in arms, who convulsed the Eoman empire, and 
stripped three bushels of golden rings from her 
slaughtered lords. Alexander who drove his wheels 
hub-deep in blood and begirt the globe with the 
track of ruin. Caesar, who laid in ruins eight hun- 
dred cities, and murdered a million of his brethren. 
Bonaparte, who filled the world with the terror of 
his name, and deluged Europe in tears, — all will be 
there ; — but not now to awe down ranks and armies, 
but there in sad dismay ! 

Komanism, that system of arrogance and iniquity 
spoken of in the Bible, assuming the prerogatives 
of the Infinite God in things spiritual — that system 
of cruelty, the most unrelenting the sun ever shone 
upon, which for centuries has been gorging her 
horrid appetite on the bodies of the holy. Whose 
Popes and priests have gone into eternity reeling 
drunk on the blood of saints, — shall stand at the 
judgment, confronted with the souls they have made 
merchandise of — who here trafficked in guilty con- 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 127 

science, by Holy Ghost condemned, taking the cure 
out of God's own hands, wrenching a higher fee 
from the God-alarm within, — shall stand there, 
stained with soul blood, — blood in their garments — 
blood on their hands, — blood that baffles wear and 
washing — red forevermore ! 

Man-stealers will be there. That barbarous, dark 
souled, iron-hearted race of slave tormentors, whose 
pedigree may be traced from wretch to wretch; back 
to demon and devil. Who here are rich in cargoes 
of despair, driving a horrid traffic as they buy and 
sell, gauge and span the bones and muscles of man. 
They will be there to face those they have tor- 
mented. Not, however, as in this world, with 
bloody lashes and cruel manacles ; but there to 
quail under the maledictions and accusations of those 
they have ruined, — there, trembling with their last 
ague — big and dark with hell ! 

Infidels will be there with the revilers of Christ 
and his religion, and all that race of God-haters 
who make by-words of Jehovah's titles, gloating 
over the sacred names of Him who died for them, 
speaking Christ and Jesus, with a demon greed, 
smacking satisfaction from scoff and blasphemy. 

Backsliders will be there, to see Him who once 
forgave all their sins — to whom they once did pray, 
of whom they sang and talked. 

Perhaps it is not customary to interrupt the order 
of a sermon at this point for warning or exhortation ; 
but in transcribing this sermon for the press, my 



128 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 

soul has become so moved for backsliders that I 
must just here make a place for God's voice in me ; 
for I actually tremble before this scene. I almost 
forebode the backslider's despair. I am full of his 
awful doom. I must speak to him now. 

Don't think I have no sympathy for you, because 
I speak in earnest. Real love is a masculine, bare- 
handed thing — it takes hold of real welfare. It 's 
the fictitious love which stands at a distance in glove 
so soft, and in manner so bland, whimpering over 
thy misfortunes, gifted mostly in winning approba- 
tion for to-day. I tell thee, O ! backslider, misfor- 
tune is not thy trouble — it 's thy sins ! Thy sins are 
thy curse ! 

I am not asleep to your difficulties in being a 
Bible Christian — the dissipations, the tumult and 
craze of the age, the perversion of religion in high 
places, make the times perilous to holiness ; and 
whoever will live godly in Christ Jesus, must have 
the holy heroism of the old martyrs. It costs noth- 
ing to become a fashionable church member of this 
day. No coming out from the world now is required, 
and as to repentance, that is obsolete, except for vul- 
gar people. Only go to the altar — or, better still, 
take front seats for prayers in a comfortable position, 
and when the minister whispers if you dont feel 
better, say, "I think I do," and he will confess for 
you, and all is well — then go and do as you always 
have done, if it 's to the ball next night, and some 
minister even will stand by you, and call it right. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 129 

At least one in Troy will indorse yon with printed 
pamphlet. But yon know, and every other sinner 
knows, that this is wicked mockery — baptised athe- 
ism. I speak to you who once trembled at God's 
word, and in your distress cried out " O wretched 
man that I am," and when your all of strength did 
fail, Christ appeared but one step in advance of 
despair, and said "thy sins be forgiven thee," and 
the new song was put into your mouth, 

" Jesus all the day long, 

Was your joy and your song;" 

but you have backsliden ! You don't pray, and 
you are not happy. You are wicked and going to 
the judgment, and you are going to ruin. I come 
to stop you by warning you of what is coming on. 
God has sent me and you must hear ! 

You have trod under feet your Savior, and counted 
the blood of the covenant wherewith you were 
sanctified an unholy thing, and done despite to the 
spirit of grace. I look a little forward, and behold 
you are at the judgment. Yes, you are there in 
murderous blood — the mark is on j^ou, — it 's on 
your feet ! How hard you trod Him down when 
you treated with contempt His salvation ! Oh ! 
how drabbled in atonement blood you are ! 

As these blood-spotted multitudes are made to 
face retribution, I seem to see restrained lightning 
grow restless and fiery. O, how its forkedness 
shoots out like adder's tongues — lurid and red, all 
tremulous with charged damnation, as if in haste to 



130 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 

be avenged on that spotted throng ! How atonement 
blood on feet stirs the vials of wrath ! But they 
are there aghast ! Though litre they may not only 
deny Christ, but deny their conversion also, and 
glory in the concealment of former days, when they 
prayed and praised, swearing it all a lie ; but the 
mark is on thee, O ! backslider ! And though thou 
Brightest mix with common sinners and heathens 
vast, and think to pass for one of them, but the 
rankling arrows in Jehovah's quiver give signs of 
the approach of spotted feet in that crowd ! 

Wrath holds a steady aim on thee, O ! backslider ! 
Now, my brother man, come back to Him whom you 
know; whom you have proved to be Jesus. Ask 
him to take you in! Come under shelter! Hide 
away in the clefts of the rock, before the storm day 
comes ! For, the crash of its coming is already 
heard. The dark portend gets darker and nearer \ 
O ! my friend, get out of these thunder roads ! I 
say, get out QUICK ! ! For you are approaching 
God on the challenge side, where He is a consuming 
lire. No one going this way ever returned. Don't 
stay here ! You attract lightning and wrath ! The 
very thunders rock at a sight of thee! Going to 
the judgment with bloody feet fresh from the head- 
ings on Jesus Christ, puts all the enginery of ruin 
astir as if impatient of sentence -'depart." 

Common sinners will be there, who, though they 
cherished a respect for religion and good people, 
and always designed to become christians at some 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 131 

period, yet, putting so much higher estimate on 
worldly aggrandizement and the gratification of 
carnal self, were held to their charms till probation 
was ended, and all lost in one disappointment ! 

Christians of all ages and dispensations will be 
there. Beginning with righteous Abel and coming 
along down the ages of martyrdom, those who 
wandered in sheep-skins and goat-skins — who were 
sawed asunder — beheaded or burned at the stake. 
However various, harsh, cruel or consuming, the 
method of putting them out of the world, God has 
but one great resurrection way of bringing them 
back again. And not one shall fail, or be overlooked 
in God's great gathering day. 

And you will be there ! You, YOURSELF ! ! 
And I shall be there ! 

3. In the third division of my subject, I will call 
your attention to some of the signs and eircum 
stances preceding and attending this great event. 

God will show signs in the earth beneath — fire 
and vapor of smoke. He will arise to shake terri- 
bly the earth. It shall reel to and fro, like a 
drunkard, and be removed like a cottage. The 
islands shall flee away, and the pillars of heaven 
shall tremble at His rebuke. There shall be earth- 
quakes in divers places, such as were not since men 
were upon the earth, so mighty earthquakes and so 
great. Earthquake traveling abreast with earth- 
quake, plunging through the bowels of the earth, 
breaking up the everlasting foundations ! 



132 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART I. 

Then shall Christ appear, as says Jucle, "Behold ! 
the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to 
execute judgment upon all." Do you inquire "why 
the saints attend him?" And, "from whence they 
are ?" They are the spirits of the just made per- 
fect, — all who have died — from righteous Abel 
clown, — coming with Christ from Paradise to reunite 
with their bodies, and be judged. For we should 
recollect, brethren, that no soul is to be judged at 
last out of the body. We are to assume the same 
form of existence in which the works were performed 
for which Ave are to be judged, except that the 
resurrection body will be immortal. 

What glorious grandeur marks the second coming 
of Christ! It's not by the old Bethlehem route 
this time, appearing in a manger ! For, "Behold ! 
He cometh with clouds" — clouds of angels and saints 
— all heaven attending Him to judgment. And 
" every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced 
Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail 
because of Him I" For, " the Lord Himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
the arch-angel and the trump of God, and the dead 
in Christ shall rise first." 

As one has said, " Christ addresses inanimate 
earth as in a liturgy of thunder. But who can 
speak of the power of Jehovah's trump ? It seems 
to be the medium through which Omnipotence 
shakes the world, for the rising is spoken of as fol- 
lowing this voice." Perhaps in form something like 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 133 

the voice of God on Mount Sinai. It waxes louder 
— louder ! ! — till seven thunders utter their voices 
in one mighty abbreviation — " Awake ye dead and 
come to judgment ! !" Come to judgment ! ! ! 
Storm howls to storm, pole nods to pole, earth 
heaves, rocks quakes under the Almighty blast, 
every accent of which sends a tremor through crea- 
tion ! The dead are rising ! All the regions of 
coffined death are astir. Strata after strata of human 
dust are forming into bodies of saints ! ! They were 
sown in weakness, they are raised in power. They 
were sown in corruption, they are raised in incor- 
ruption. 

The sea and its waves roaring, heaving, swelling 
in her billowy might, gives up her dead ! Billows 
roll and rise mantled with immortal corpses — 
myriads of human bodies traveling up the roaring 
serge, going to judgment ! Death gives up his 
dead of bodies. 

Perhaps about the time of the resurrection of the 
wicked, which is called the resurrection of damna- 
tion, more frightful forms of wrath will appear. 
That angel spoken of shall set one foot upon the 
sea and the other upon the earth, lifting up his hand 
to heaven, " shall swear by Him that liveth forever 
and ever that time shall be no longer." Rev. x, 6. 
The heavens dalled with sackcloth of hair, darken 
into night ! The sun hangs rayless in his zenith, 
and stars fall from heaven like figs when shaken by 

an untimelv wind ! 

12 



134 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 

Now comes on that agent of destruction, — fire ! 
God is stirring the latency of eternity, opening His 
deep mouthed thunders at the world ! The maga- 
zines of fire are redening overhead and underneath. 
The great engines of ruin are rumbling in the dis- 
tant arsenals of the universe, shaking the poles, — 
while men are calling on rocks and mountains to 
fall on them and hide them. The earth, frantic 
with confusion, rolls in fire. As the Holy Ghost 
saith, "the heavens and earth which are now, by 
the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire 
against the day of judgment and perdition of un- 
godly men." Second Peter, iii, 7. 

Do you inquire for the source of fire sufficient for 
this great work ? It is all around us — overhead and 
underneath. It is in every element of nature — even 
so in Southern seas and Northern ice. The atmos- 
phere begirting the globe to the depth of forty-five 
miles is nothing less than diluted, liquid fire, — dilu- 
ted by a property which prevents combustion. And 
the learned inform us that the present compound 
state of the atmosphere is contrary to the laws of 
chemistry ; and no explanation has yet been given 
of this phenomenon in nature. But this is nothing 
to the case. Naturalness is riot in the way of Om- 
nipotence. God, by mere volition, could cause this 
diluting element to rise, leaving the earth in flaming 
oxygen forty-five miles deep. 

Then go down to the bowels of the earth. Who 
will fathom the vast magazines of fire which sleep 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 135 

below ? This earth, in the hands of God, may 
become one vast Vesuvius, which from a thousand 
mouths might belch out its fires, lashing the heavens 
into a parchment scroll. Who can tell but that we 
sfc; over a burning Etna to-night ? 

Three hundred experiments have been made to 
test the internal heat of the earth. All prove per- 
petual fires at the centre, with two hundred volca- 
noes or craters. 

Let means and measures be as they may, one thing 
we are sure of, "that the elements shall melt with 
fervent heat — that the earth and the works therein 
shall be burned up." 

But who may abide the day of His coming ? That 
is our question. 

But, to the gathering for judgment. We have 
seen the earth and sea giving up their dead of 
bodies, and Paradise is vacated of the spirits of the 
just. Hades or hell is also to give up her dead of 
souls. But who can speak of such a scene as that, 
when Jehovah Christ, before whom hell shall stag- 
ger with dismay, and every knee in heaven and 
earth shall bow, when with his own authority he 
shall throw open the gates of despair, grating judg- 
ment summons through the caverns of woe ! The 
chains of darkness, link after link, give way ! The 
eternal bolts drive back by decree of God, and hell 
opens, upheaving its ruined souls, gnashing of 
teeth, hissing fire, as they crowd the yawning pas- 
sage — bloated with blasphemies against God and the 



136 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 

Lamb, — whose eyes drip with night, and despair 
sits on their brows forever ! These ruined souls are 
also to reunite with their bodies. 

Here, with the risen dead, let us stand before the 
great white throne, and if possible, obtain a broad 
view of this awfully sublime scene. 

The burning world is cooling down ! Thunders, 
these awful forms of wrath, are suppressed in silence. 
It is getting void and still in time's dominions, except 
perhaps here and there fragments of planets, inter- 
rupted in their final crash by some wrecked empire, 
are heard sliding down the chasms of night, rum- 
bling a doleful echo through the solitudes of oblivion, 
which sends a shudder through the immortal ranks. 
Then a crumbling prop of creation gives way, the 
sides of the north fall in, and creation reels to her 
final fall. It is getting still and lonely where once 
man abode. The bells of eternity have rolled up 
their doleful chasms, muffled in silence, as though 
waiting to toll the funeral of the world ! The trump 
of God in its awful echo is retiring through the dis- 
tant planes of eternity with a vibration which sends 
a tremor through the Universe ! 

All is still before the great white throne! Gnashing 
teeth and gnawing worms are paralyzed ! Emotion, 
stagnated in its channel, lays trembling on the soul, 
and blasphemies choked in the throat of death ! 
Myriads vast are being awed into silence, except, I 
think, the children of pious parents, and highly 
favored sinners, and backsliders, as they look along 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART I. 137 

the glorified ranks and change looks with ministers, 
parents and christians, utter a sigh too deep for 
sound. But I guess the cause of this. The relation 
between them and the saints of God was once near 
and dear. The prayers of Christians — the songs of 
Zion, with New Testament messages, are fresh in 
their mind. The echo of prayer and praise yet lives 
in the soul, — lives to remind them of what they have 
been, and what they might be. 

Behold the vast convocation of immortal, trans- 
parent bodies ! Perhaps so transparent that through 
the naked breasts of once mighty kings and common 
sinners, may be seen the corpse of soul whose eyes 
look out despair, — dead to God, to hope, to heaven 
—dead ! — eternally dead ! ! Yet alive to sin and 
guilt, to pain and woe ! 

Naught is heard but the beating pulse of eternity. 
Every eye is set in its socket, and creation holds its 
breath,— for the Books are opened ! 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

PART SECOND. 

Rev. xx, 12. — " And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
God ; and the books were opened ; and another book was opened, 
which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of 
those things which were written in the books, according to their 
works." 

The last discourse on this subject left us standing 
before the great white throne in assembly vast, ap- 
proaching so near the infinite in number as to leave 
all our thoughts of greatness behind. 

It is perhaps impossible for the imagination even 
to take in a scene so vast as the Judgment Day will 
present. However great it may be with numbers, 
it will not have the effect of annihilating individu- 
ality, as is the case somewhat with large assemblages 
in the present world. No spectators there ! No 
one looking upon himself as lost in the mass; but 
every one there, as never before, will feel his own 
identity. Such a deep, unwonted sense of /, myself, 
will settle down on every immortal as to make him 
feel " / am to he judged ." 

In pursuing this solemn subject, I shall, 

I. First, notice some of the qualifications of Jesus 
Christ, as Judge of the world. 

Inquiries naturally arise here, respecting the pre- 
rogatives of Jesus Christ to judge the human race. 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART II. 139 

His right to judge does not rest so much on the fact 
that He is God, as that He is God-Eedeemer. 
That He has redeemed the human race, gives Him 
the right to doom. His great white throne rests on 
His Calvary cross. His right to pronounce the word 
" Depart/' lives in His tasting death for every 
man. While the fact of His having tasted death for 
every man is a guarantee that every man shall be 
saved who comes within the range of Divine possi- 
bilities, as announced in His gospel, herein also shall 
appear the damnableness of the sinner's sin, in with- 
standing love unto death. 

1. Omniscience. Omniscience will not then, as 
now, be looked upon as a perfection of Deity, merely 
important to be kept in our creeds, and taught to our 
children, but it will be felt to be a great acting attri- 
bute. Every individual will feel beset about with 
God, — all pervaded with Omniscience, — analyzed, 
as with eyes of flame. 

Have you ever sat in the presence of a superior, 
when his very looks indicated a knowledge of your- 
self, — that his sagacious eye penetrated your motives 
and designs ? 

Look at that criminal being tried for murder. 
The Judge is addressing the jury. There is one 
point — one hinge upon which the whole case must 
turn. This has been the dread of the culprit all 
through the trial. There he sits, trembling in the 
conflict of hope and fear. When the Judge ap- 
proaches this dreaded circumstance in the testimony, 



140 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART II. 

his pause — his gesture — his look is euough. Before 
the dreaded fact is stated, the head of the criminal 
falls and hope has fled. Why this effect? That 
criminal saw in the looks of the Judge that his case 
was understood. 

Now imagine a look from Christ which speaks 
knowledge of thyself, — a look which comprehends 
thy life with a glance, and we may, perhaps, form 
some idea of the contrariety of emotion, of agitation 
— the universal shock which runs through a world 
of immortal beings, when Christ for the first looks 
by design, Omnisciently, as though with a glance 
He read up thy history, and looked its awful import 
out. He looks, and Eternity fills with its God. 

I apprehend that this look will receive a response 
from every individual according to his character, 
The saints shall recognize in it a witness of appro 
bation, and ten thousands of angels shall rejoice 
While through all the guilty ranks, knees are trem 
bling and men falling backward in fearful dismay 

But have we any grounds for this supposition ? 
Have we not a record of some invisible power going 
out through Christ's looks and words while on 
earth? John xviii, 6, "As soon then as He had 
said unto them, I am he, they went backward and 
fell to the ground.' 7 Then, too, in the eleventh 
verse : " And I saw a great white throne, and Him 
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for 
them." 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PAET IE 141 

2. Almighty. Christ is Almighty. 

If we recollect the character of those who are to 
be judged, we shall readily see that Omnipotence is 
an essential qualification in Him who is to subdue 
the anarchy and rebellion of the universe. What 
are the characters ? Principalities and powers — 
fallen augels — old apostates from heaven, filled with 
eternal rage, clamoring for Messiah's blood. 

Infidels bloated with blasphemies. Swearers, who 
with a contemptuous lip, mouthed the heavens — 
who, while on earth, walked under the stars, hissing 
the name of Jesus at the throne of God ; whose 
fiendish delight was found in taking the name of 
the Most High in vain ; making fun of the titles of 
Jehovah. 

Sabbath-breakers and contemners of religion, who 
would not turn aside while on earth to please the 
eternal God, but snuffed at His law, and defied His 
authority, rushing upon the thick bosses of His 
buckler, braving the fears of eternity, dying at last, 
sullen as hell, striking back into the fiery wheels of 
Jehovah's approach, unconquered and unsubdued. 

What can a judgment seat, destitute of power be 
but a laughing stock to such a dark brotherhood as 
this ? This nursed wrath of hell — this accumulated 
rage of devils and men is to be conquered. That 
last sentence of "Depart ye cursed," is to be 
backed up with Omnipotence, by which the rebel- 
lion of the universe shall fall backward to rise no 
more ! 



142 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART II. 

3. Impartial. Impartiality is another qualifica- 
tion of Jesus Christ as Judge. 

Any thing like partiality or favoritism in Him, 
who is to pronounce the doom of the human race, 
would be repugnant to the moral sense of the uni- 
verse. For God to make man responsible for him- 
self — to endow him with the fearful prerogative of 
determining his own destiny, and yet, by the work- 
ing of some eternal decree, so influence human 
decision as to make the ruin of any certain, would 
be a mockery, — a farce too monstrous and solemn 
one would think for the credence even of devils. 
Such a suspicion would unsettle the confidence of 
heaven. Every sentence would wake the jealousy 
of the world. 

And yet, some good people believe that by the 
decree of God, some men and angels are ordained 
to eternal death, and that the number is so definite 
that it cannot be added to nor diminished from ; and 
further, that God has foreordained whatsoever comes 
to pass. Blasphemous ! 

One thing is certain, that when this horrid impu- 
tation of the sins of men and angels is fully fixed 
on the Holy God, His throne will no longer be 
called the white throne ; but rather the seat of 
blackness and darkness forever. 

Intelligent beings will not then be hoodwinked 
with the old saying "even so Father, for so it seemed 
good in thy sight ;" for such things never did seem 
good in His sight. 
\ 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART II. 143 

4. Son of man. The fourth and last qualification 
to which I shall allude, is expressed in the phrase, 
" Son of man" Incarnate Judge ! 

This refers to God in His redemption work, in- 
vested with a human body, &c. Perhaps no mani- 
festation of Christ, at last, will excite so deep con- 
trariety of emotions as that which marks Him as the 
man of Calvary ! 

I apprehend that the sight of Him who was once 
called the Nazarene, will be enough to thrill immor- 
tal ranks, and wake recollections of Calvary's scenes 
and gospel clays, beyond what we are capable of in 
the present life. 

But should He lift His hands, — should we behold 
those immortalized scars — the tokens of His passion 
- — the marks received for us, who can imagine the 
effect ? For we must recollect that Christ's body 
was immortalized with His wounds bleeding — His 
glorified body as though just from the nails and the 
spear, leaving the fresh memorials of His dying love 
for sinners. 

That human body — those gory wounds constitute 
the visible attestations of His right to judge the 
human race. In these are found the yea and amen 
of His awful, glorious throne. It is this great sub- 
lime fact that He who judges the quick and dead 
is He who once was the " Man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." I say it is in this great fact 
that the poignancy of his visage lies to the sinner. 



144 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PART II. 

It is this which carries the torment to the soul of 
him who has slighted the Savior on earth. 

For a sinner to look upon that sacred head once 
mocked with thorns, is enough to wake the guilt 
within him ; but when those benignant eyes, so used 
to weeping on earth, shall turn on him who once 
rejected that Savior, his soul is transfixed. He's 
unutterably damned, — the misery of the look is in 
the benignity of His eyes. To excite a frown from 
such serenity is evidence of great sin, — this is the 
secret of the misery. 

This is Bible doctrine. Hear what the Holy 
Ghost saith, "For, behold He cometh with clouds, 
and every eye shall see Him. They also which 
pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall 
wail because of Him." Eev. i, 7. 

" Once His voice in tones of pity- 
Melted in woe, 

And He wept o'er Judah's City 
Long time ago." 

But, now the pillars of heaven tremble at His 
rebuke. And He is "taking vengeance on them 
that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of 
Jesus Christ." 

" On His head the dews of midnight 
Fell long ago, 

But now a crown of dazzling sunlight 
Sits on His brow." 

In this fact lies the secret of Christ's terrible 
majesty as the Judge of men — that he is the very 



THE GENERAL JUDGMENT — PAET II. 145 

Being who died for the very persons He is judging. 
And that fact published in the terrible rhetoric of 
His crucified body. Here lies the poigancy of 
Christ's presence — that He appears in Cavalry 
aspect — bearing still the visage of love unto death, 
not yet having lost the expression of His garden 
agony and bloody sweat for sinners. The ancient 
meek lowliness still lingers about His countenance, 
for He is wont to be compassionate. This we should 
recollect, friends, that Christ as human, was made 
to save and not to condemn, and if He does condemn 
at last, as He certainly will, it will be because He is 
compelled to on account of the damnable insult 
which sinners offer to His love. 

O ! sinner, to be condemned by thy Saviour, and 
that, too, in the very body which bled and died for 
thee — this is what will wring the anguish from thy 
soul ! ! 
' But when He speaks, who will describe — 

" The thunder of that awful word, 
Which then torments the ear, 
Tearing the soul asunder, Lord, 
With most tormenting fear." 

He says to the righteous, " Come ye blessed of 
my Father — inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 
Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you." How soothing ! How full of 
grace and comfort ! A welcome, cordial and full ; 
and it comes from Him who went about doing good ! 

13 



146 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT PART II. 

It' s my Saviour speaking ! How natural the lan- 
guage ! We are reminded of Jerusalem, and the 
many times He said blessed in the sermon on the 
Mount. 

But when he turns to the wicked, saying, "Depart 
ye cursed, I know you not," how into the soul he 
speaks ! How terrible ! And yet, even in this 
awful sentence, we seem to catch the Calvary accent ! 
The note of compassion is heard amid the terrible 
curse ! 

Yes ! It's the Saviour's voice, pronouncing a curse 
on the very beings he died to save, — and this is the 
terribleness of the sentence ! The writhing agony 
comes through that compassionate strain — damnation 
is in that note of love. 

The terrible thunder of His voice is in that deep 
undertone of pity ! 

II. Second : Briefly refer to the principles by 
which the Judgment will be governed ! 

Here permit me to premise a very important con- 
sideration to the understanding of this subject, viz.: 
that 

Christ will not proceed on the principle of His 
knowing all things, and, therefore, dispensing with 
all investigation on the occasion. We suppose that 
the Judgment will proceed the same that it would 
were Christ ignorant of man and his history. How 
otherwise could every mouth be stopped ? How 
otherwise could He clear Himself of the charges 
which have been, and will be brought against Him, 



THE GENEKAL JUDGMENT— PAKT II. 147 

of being a hard Master ; reaping where he has not 
sown? Hence, the force of the declaration, "The 
men of Ninevah shall rise up in the judgment," &c. 
Then in the text — "The boohs were opened.'' 1 

Note. — The third sermon on this subject, relating to the books, 
the source of evidence and the measure of sentence, &c, must be 
omitted- 



SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 

1st John, iii 2. — " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it 
doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when 
He shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see Him as He 
is." 

The Apostle John had not only some favorite 
words, but he also cherished some favorite feelings. 
He used the appellation of "Beloved" perhaps, to 
as good advantage and as often as any other Apostle. 
He knew how to speak it, as it suited his mood of 
mind. He was so kind and amiable, that he ob- 
tained the title of " Beloved Disciple." That was 
his D. D. — John, B. D. — Beloved Disciple — can't 
say what school conferred the degree. He was such 
an one as all would like to speak with, and have 
him call and visit them. He would, no doubt, be a 
favorite with children. 

But if you would have the world turned upside 
down, — if some great errors were to be confronted 
and overthrown — if you would see a kingdom shaken 
with a mighty argument, you would send for Paul. 

It is doubtful if John was ever whipped as much 
as Paul. If he suffered less persecution, it was not 
because he was less good or less devoted; but be- 
cause he was differently endowed, and called to 
different work. John was gifted in building up, 
while Paul was eminently qualified to pull down. 
It requires less moral heroism to build up, than 



SONS OF GOD LIKE CHKIST. 149 

would suffice for pulling down. When we demolish, 
we come in contact with builders. Paul was made 
for a pioneer, — he had the native daring for the 
work. He gloried in his mission to the Gentiles, and 
the regions beyond. He had the courage to grapple 
in with the systems of superstition and idolatry — 
dashing into the fortifications of error with his two- 
edged sworcl, dividing asunder soul and spirit — 
joints and marrow; while John would follow up 
the bloody trail with his balm of Gilead, healing the 
wounded. John, by his urbanity of manner, and 
his melting sympathy, would lead the half-awakened 
sinner to Christ with success. But if beasts at 
Ephesus were to be fought, it was Paul who dared 
their dens, taking the lion by the mane, driving the 
harpoon to his heart. John's mind was more like a 
garden of flowers, presenting a variety of odors and 
colors, all meek and odorous; while Paul was more 
like a cedar forest in a storm, sallying forth in 
crashing power on the kingdom of anti-Christ. 

It is said that when John became so weak and 
infirm with age that he was unable to walk, the 
Disciples carried him in a chair to the synagogue, 
and he would repeat his favorite injunction — " Little 
children, love one another." (Doubtful if Paul 
lived to be old.) 

But, leaving this contrast of gifts, I come directly 
to the text, which contains two propositions: 

I. What we now are. 

II. What we shall be. 



150 SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 

The phraseology of the text is such as to excite 
great expectations of the future state, — inspiring a 
hope big with immortal bliss. It is a true saying, 
(at least in the natural world,) "but for hope, the 
heart would break." The poverty and emptiness of 
the present are greatly relieved by the provisions 
of hope. Many a dark day has been cheered by a 
foreign sun, — many a lonely hour has been sung to 
by distant voices, and many a traveler, faint and 
cold in the journey of noon, has been warmed by the 
home fires of evening, — while the food stinted family 
has ail-but subsisted on the unsickled harvest. 

By this admirable arrangement — this graduating 
scale, the superabundance of the future is brought 
down by hope, to help a present emergency through 
to better days. 

However wise and necessary this arrangement for 
this present state of things, it is, nevertheless, a 
humiliation that the present is sustained by borrowed 
capital ! How few get ready to live, before they 
die ! How few are enabled to sit down to a rich 
and comfortable present ! 

Poor soul is he whose joys are in the morrow ! 
Happy indeed would he be if he could once overtake 
that morrow-happiness ! But, alas ! alas, — it ever 
eludes his grasp by — just to-morrow. 

But the Christian, notwithstanding there is an 
infinitude of bliss to hope for, and it doth not appear 
what he shall be, because it is so great, yet he is not 
narrowed down to a life of hope. He is not sub- 



SONS OF GOD LIKE CHEIST. 101 

sistingon borrowed capital, — he is now a son of God, 
— now filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. The 
Christian's happiness is not a morrow affair, but a 
to-day comfort. And, when the morrow becomes 
to-day, his happiness will come along with it, and he 
shall be eternally blessed with the heaven of to-day. 

Christianity is not a system kept up on future 
hopes and distant prospects, like winter living on 
summer, or night going in debt to-day. It is true, 
the Christian's hope is full — O, glorious hope ! — his 
prospect is boundless and enchanting, but his present 
peace is like a river — his joy is unspeakable noiv, 
and full of glory. While his hope is perfect, his 
to-day comfort is full. 

If Christianity is not sustained then, on borrowed 
capital, it is not so much because there is no rich 
future to borrow from, as that there is no real destitu- 
tion to borrow to. For these streams of life are not 
shut up to a distant fountain, but every Christian has in 
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

In the Kingdom, the present is not so dependent 
on the future that it cannot sustain itself. No week 
days here, bringing their bills over to the Sabbath 
to be cancelled. For, to the Christian, there is 
Sabbath enough in all his days to make a bethel to 
his soul. Even the sick, when confined at home, 
have grown in grace and ripened for heaven. 

No dark days here, exciting the beams of distant 
suns, for every clay has it sun and shield. No trav- 
eller here, famishing for the want of bread, for, in 



152 SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 

the wilderness a table is spread, and streams break 
out in the dessert. And he that hungers and thirsts 
after righteousness, shall be filled. 

Are there winters ? If there are winters in the 
Kingdom, they would sustain themselves, should 
two come together ; for there never was a winter in 
Christianity so leafless and bleak but its fruitage 
and flowers, its evergreens and bowers, made De- 
cember as pleasant as May. Here, summer may last 
all the year. 

Ask Paul in his two years' winter confinement at 
Rome. Ask Paul and Silas, in the wintry day of 
their persecution. Ask the wintry age of martyr- 
dom, and read the answer in the holy halo of the 
stake fires. 

But the text says, " it doth not yet appear," &c. 
— great as our ideas may be of future bliss. But 
does the present appear ? 

Who can comprehend the meaning of a son of 
God ? Who can trace out the resemblance between 
the Heavenly Father and His second birth children ? 
Who can enter the holy of holies, and report the 
"Abba, Father/' spoken there ? 

" 'Tis mystery all — immense — and free ! 
For, O ! my God ; Thou lovest me !" 

And loved, too, as a son ! 

To be sons of God by creation, as in the case of 
angels and original Adam, is quite different from 
being made a son by redemption and adoption. By 
redemption, the forfeited natural rights are not only 



SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 153 

restored to the adopted, but he is also exalted to the 
highest heirship of the Heavenly Family. While 
his birthright inheritance, by virtue of his creation, 
(since restored) stands equal to that of angels, put- 
ting him on equal rights as heir of the Father, and, 
if you choose, joint heir with the Son of God, then, 
over and above all the rights pertaining to the 
natural children — children by creation — a son by 
redemption and adoption comes into joint heirship 
with Jesus Christ. 

Joint heirship with Jesus Christ involves a rela- 
tionship the most extensive and sacred known in the 
Universe. It not only keeps good all the birthright 
privileges of the natural children, but it also gives 
to the adopted a title to that great, and grand, and 
glorious inheritance which has more recently been 
brought to the Throne by the Eedeemer. 

The redemption work of Jesus Christ, is a new 
infinity of derived glory added to the Infinite — an 
inheritance more rich and glorious — more God-re- 
vealing than all others. Outweighing in God-glori- 
fying revenue — the product of eternity past. 

If the first rudiments of the Kingdom are so deep 
in mystery, what shall we do with the higher prob- 
lems of the science ? If the beginning of Christianity 
is inexpressible, what shall we say of the glorified 
state ? 

" — if our fellowship below 
In Jesus be so sweet. 
What heights of rapture shall we know 
When round His Throne we meet." 



154 SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 

If we are overwhelmed with the glory and God, 
the bliss and grandeur of the new-born sons — 
weighed down with flesh and blood, with ignorance 
and infirmity, what shall we do when we see them 
all like Christ ? For thus they are to be, which I 
am to consider. 

2. What we shall be. 

We cannot say where we shall be, as it relates 
to centre or circumference — latitude or longitude ; 
neither can we say how we shall be. Here we are 
silenced by the Apostle. He says " it cloth not yet 
appear." 

And even if some favored ones were permitted to 
know, they would not be able to make known the 
revelation. They would fail for the want of lan- 
guage. And then, suppose they understood all mys- 
teries, and could speak the dialect of heaven — were 
familiar with the language of spirits — could read 
out the symbols and signs of the other world, and 
pronounce the great abbreviations of eternity — we 
could not understand them. 

How little do we know even of our own soul! — 
that home spirit within — that divine Me of man — that 
mystic, unfathomable essence, which call itself I, on 
the earth! 

If we know then so little of this selfhood of 
earth, what can we know of that vast spiritual 
world ? For instance, what can we know here of 
a glorified, immortal body of that world — whether 
of its appearance, movements or experience ? The 



SONS OF GOD LIKE CHKIST. 155 

Lord says "It is sown in weakness — raised in power, 
sown in corruption," &c. Who can imagine how he 
will feel as he first enters heaven ? — first greets 
father Abraham ? If, indeed, he can find time to 
look for any thing, or any being, for the great 
central attraction of Him whom we adore ! 

"Wherever we may be — however we may be, there 
is one all essential to final heaven with us, viz: that 
we are like Christ. This shall constitute the full 
fitness for His glory and His kingdom, and this shall 
constitute the charm of character everywhere. Light 
or shady, old or young, ill favored or comely here, 
that inwrought likeness and outward glory of the 
Adorable shall make a saint the admiration of Angels 
and the throne. 

I see Father Abraham with the old prophets 
grouped near the throne. They say to each other 
" we are like Him" for its a felt likeness, and it 
keeps saying itself. So the saved heathens say " ive 
are like Him." But O ! my soul look at the infants! 
How vast their ranks ! But they cry " we are like 
Him !" — Yes, cry as they come ! How their white 
robes rustle over the Lebanons of eternity ! 

The text, if I understand it, seems to make the 
being like Christ the condition of seeing Him as He 
is. If so, seeing Him means more than to behold 
Him. It means a perception of Him — yea, more 
still — a comprehension of Him — a comprehension 
which can only be reached by similitude of nature 
and experience. For illustration — we cannot com- 



156 SONS OF GOD LIKE CHRIST. 

prehend the life of a fish. His existence in the 
water, with his seeing and breathing, is so far in 
contrast with ours as to forbid our knowledge of 
his experience. So of the small insect whose exist- 
ence lasts but a day, spending his whole life in 
going over one grain of sand, and getting lost on 
its shady side at last, and there dying of old age. 
This is too near to nothing for our knowledge. But, 
when I see you, a human being weep, I know there 
is anguish. I see you as you are because I am like 
you. 

So Christ became poor for our sakes, that He 
might experience our poverty, — becoming so like 
us that He could suffer for us and with us. So, He 
will make us so near like Him that we may glory in 
His glory ! As He became like us in mortality that 
he might experience our death — so we shall be like 
Him in immortality, that we may experience His 
life. And as He came and died among us, so we 
shall go and live with Him, — and eternally live with 
Him! 

As He became like unto us that He might sup 
with us — O what a cup was ours — drugged deep 
and dark with death and hell ! — even so He will 
have us so like Him that we can come to His King- 
dom and dominion, and sup with Him ! O ! Brother 
be in haste to put on and take in Christ ! Glory to 
God for the prospect ! — the prospect of being like 
him, and being where He is. 



THE HEAVENLY RACE A DESPE- 
RATION. 

Phil. iii. 13. — '•'Forgetting those tilings which are behind .... I 
press toward the mark." 

The Apostle, in another place, makes this obser- 
vation of himself : — " When I was a child, I thought 
as a child, I spake as a child ; but when I became a 
man, I put away childish things." He put them 
away as the apple puts away the blossom, or as the 
oak puts away the acorn. Man is the outgrowth of 
the child. The child is the forget of the man. The 
man has become incapacitated for the child, by his 
over-capacity. He cannot bring himself quite within 
that sphere. Let him warp and bend or break, as 
suits him best, the out will be more than the in. 
He has become estranged from his former self, — has 
forgotten his ancient experience, even when he ought 
to laugh and weep — letting their occasions go by 
with the old ceremony of laughing or crying left 
out — just because he forgot to do it. 

Show him the photograph of aboriginal self — he 
don't know the being, and there is no process or art 
by which he can repeat his little self, even in mem- 
ory. He has forgotten his experience of himself, 
even of small feet and small hands. 

Happy indeed would it be for us adults, if the 
childhood state comprised the sum total of Ayhat we 
14 



158 THE HEAVEXLY RACE A DESPERATION. 

are to leave behind. There is a more difficult forget 
of past than what relates to childhoood. More harm 
lurks in the gone-by of a sinful nature and a sinful 
life, than we suspect. 

The Christian must abrogate the sinful past, as 
well as provide for a holy future. It is this rear 
influence which divides our force. No Christian is 
truly strong who stands between his conflicts and 
his motives. Face your enemies by making them 
face you. Never allow the faults and failings of the 
past, with old habits and old sins, to be trooping 
up behind, as though they had a right to your tracks 
— claiming affinity from old relations ; though they 
come with a bland and moaning manner to justify 
their ways, through ignorance and infirmity, heed 
them not. 

They say they are accidents, and not premedita- 
tions, — call you sincere, — that you don't mean to do 
wrong, but these things must occur while in the 
flesh. They want you to say yes, and whimper over 
the fatherless things, and take them in. Say NO ! 
with a vengeance, and stop their blab at once, or 
they will take power out of you. A soft and bland- 
ish y-e-s gives old habits the vantage ground of a 
rear attack, — the worst of all defects — enemies in 
front and retreat cut off. 

Say no!!— quick and harsh, — with the lightning 
in your eye. Abnegate the old Adam in you. Di- 
vorce the past from the present. A spiteful xo is a 
grapple in front. Wrestle down the old man by 



THE HEAVENLY RACE A DESPERATION. 159 

the mighty NO ! No, is weapon enough, when 
loaded right. 

If hands or eyes, right or left, persist in wrong 
doing, cut them off, and scare the whole brood by 
trailing blood ! Carry your surgical instruments as 
well as balm of Gilead. Whatever enemy comes 
next, old or young, rough or smooth, show him old 
amputations, with blood in the rear! 

Wrench old habits out of their ruts, and face about 
for a higher destination — making a new track on the 
highway of life. 

Pressing forward is your only chance ! Stake all 
on that ! Keeping the prize in view, and blood in 
the rear!! 

Not only face your enemies, but yoxiv encourage- 
ments, also ! March your motives to the front ! — 
leaving no self considerations in ambush, — they will 
breed mutiny in the ranks. Whatever refuses to 
take its stand with truth and God, brand as a traitor 
and hang it to the first tree, or you will get foiled 
in the end. Allow no consideration, influence or 
motive to even exist, that cannot pronounce the 
shibboleth of " omcaicV' without hesitation. 

Beware of selfish considerations ! They are the 
hesitancy of your onward, — the cross-eyed, reverted 
look of your vision, — the " if" of your vow, — the 
proviso of your consecration, — the compromise of 
your power, and defeat of your victory ! O, self ! 
Full of all subtlety and mischief — enemy of all 
righteousness, when wilt thou cease to pervert the 



160 THE HEAVENLY RACE A DESPERATION. 

right ways of the Lord? Self! Self! Selfish 
considerations clamoring for a hearing at the peril 
of my immortality ! Self, the carnal of my love ! — 
the atheism of my faith — the chagrin of my religion ! 
Yet clutching for my Saviour's glory. Crucifixion 
shall be thy fate — yes, crucifixion with head down- 
ward ! Amen ! 

'' Awake my soul, stretch every nerve, 
And press with vigor on ; 
A heavenly race demands thy zeal, 
And an immortal crown. 

A cloud of witnesses around 
Hold thee in full survey ; 
Forget the steps already trod, 
And onward urge thy way." 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR.* 

PART FIRST. 

John xvii, 1. — '' These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes 
to heaven and said. ' Father, the hour is come.'" 

Mr text carries us back to a scene both awful and 
glorious. It may be called "The Great Crisis." I 
mean the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 

It was an event marked with numerous and exten- 
sive preliminaries. These, Christ had met so per- 
fectly, that it might have been said of Him, " He 
fulfilled the law, both moral and ceremonial." And 
now, with a character unspotted, He had reached the 
closing scene. With His sorrows and sufferings be- 
fore Him, He seems to be preparing Himself, in His 
appeal to God, for the final struggle, — that for which 
He came into the world. A scene of suffering and 
dying assigned to a particular period in the annals 
of time. 

Hence, Christ, on a certain occasion, says, "My 
time is not yet come." " My time is not only marked 
by events and circumstances, but governed, also, by 
rolling years, — the lapse of ages." 

Again, in Gallatians, iv, 4, it is said that "in the 
fullness of time God sent forth His Son." Then 

* Preached, in part, at a Camp-meeting near Canajoharie, N. T. 



162 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART I. 

again, "In due time Christ died for the ungodly." 
Christ says in Mark i, 15, "The time is fulfilled" 
Then, in the text, " Father, the hour is come" 

These quotations not only prove what I wish to 
prove, but they also indicate the theme of the pres- 
ent discourse, viz.: 

The hour of Christ's sufferings and atonement is 
monumental in the annals of time. 

This hour should be considered important for 
other reasons than those found in the events which 
then transpired. 

It is an hour of unparalleled importance in its 
relations to time and dispensations. It is a point of 
time which contains in itself a two-fold epoch. Not 
only that which we reckon from, but also that which 
prophets reckoned to. As though God, from the 
dawn of time — going out from the morning of earthly 
existence into the future, fixed upon a point in the 
far distance, as the boundary of the first section of 
time — a monumental hour for the world to travel 
up to. A kind of equatorial line, which should divide 
two hemispheres, or dispensations. It was that far 
advanced period, which constituted the fullness of 
time. That period to which the ages pointed, and 
which the moral world was working up to. That 
bright dawning which the prophets saw glimmering 
through the vista of that first long, dark dispen- 
sation. 

As the world neared this boundary, the signs of 
its approach increased, and with these increased the 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART I. 1G3 

excitement. The prophets, by the aid of the Spirit, 
took up the measuring chain, and numbering its 
links, defined the period to the world. 

I think, from where Daniel counted, it was seventy 
links, or prophetic weeks, to the boundary, and as 
the ages rolled on the excitement increased. Yes, 
increased in heaven, earth and hell. For while the 
prophets were engaged in searching what, or what 
manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in 
them, did signify when it testified beforehand, the 
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, 
the " angels desired to look into these things." See 
that angel, commissioned to earth with a name. 
" Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save 
His people from their sins." 

So, also, the kingdom of anti-Christ was stirred 
with apprehensions that the universe was approach- 
ing some great epoch, the earth was so filled with 
evil spirits. As though to be in time, with sword 
and buckler on, devils rallied to this great battle- 
field, ready for war with the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah. Knowing that the Son of God was coming 
within their reach, and that it would be the hour 
and power of darkness, it was improved iu bruising 
the heel of the seed of the woman. 

They even confronted Christ, face to face, and 
intimated that He was out of the order of time, for, 
according to the chronology of devils, the time had 
not come for Christ to open the long dreaded war 
with death and hell. "Art Thou come," say they, 



164 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART I. 

" to torment us before the time ?" " We know Thee, 
who Thou art, the Holy One of God.' 7 

But the chief importance of this hour, viewed as 
a boundary in time, refers to the close of the old, 
and the commencement of the new Covenants. 

The idea is this, that from the beginning, God 
bounded off a certain section of time lying in the 
future, within the limits of which He instituted a 
a certain order of things, preparatory to another 
system more perfect. That when the ages should 
have traveled up to this boundary — filled these 
limits — this first dispensation should cease forever. 
The hour of the text is this boundary. That first 
order of things we call the Mosaic dispensation. A 
dispensation instituted for a temporary purpose. 
And, tracing its process and progress, especially in 
its last workings, we find evident signs of decay, — 
that it " had waxen old, and was ready to vanish 
away." Heb. viii, 13. 

And in scrutinizing its structure, we find that it 
was not only designed for a specific purpose, but 
also limited to a definite period, — that its mechanism 
indicated that it was limited. And had the period 
assigned to its existence been considerably increased, 
it seems doubtful whether it would have reached it. 
For, already it is seen faltering through imper- 
fection. It reached the boundary, however, and 
expired, — fell to a wreck just on the line of demar- 
cation, and the first work of Shiloh was to move off 
the old system, that He might establish the new- 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR — PART I. 165 

Then said He, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O ! 
God," — "He taketh away the first, that He may 
establish the second." Heb. x, 9 ; Col. ii, 14. 

And had Christ not been in time for His work, 
sad, indeed, would have been the state of things. 
For, yon will recollect, brethren, that the predic- 
tions had to do with time, as well as events. The 
prophetic map by which Christ was living — by 
which He was acting, and by which He was to die, 
was all measured — these events were dated. Hence, 
a failure in time would have been the same as the 
failure of events so far as the truth of prophecy was 
concerned. 

But Christ was there ! There girt with Omnipo- 
tence and grace for the awful struggle, — there as 
the immaculate victim for the altar, — there with the 
New Testament covenant all written out ready for 
the blood of ratification ! There with the gospel 
dispensation waiting for the fullness of time ; — a 
dispensation instinct with light and life, with every 
wheel chained, tremulous with charged divinity, 
waiting for old dispensation to come through. 

At length the limits are filled. The boundary is 
reached, and Christ exclaims, "Father, the hour is 
come I" — and the gospel era is ushered in with 
signs and wonders. 

Yes, the first movement of the new system, — the 
first impulse of its internal power confounded hell, 
— opened graves shook the earth — converted a thief, 
admitting him to Paradise the same day ! This 



166 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART I. 

hour terminates all preparatory dispensations, — all 
the types and shadows cease here ! 

Look, now, at the scenes about the old holy of 
holies ! Behold that vast concourse of people, with 
droves of beasts for the altar. Priests and high 
priests are there. Great expiatory day for Israel ! 
The transgressors stand without, confessing their 
sins. The holy of holies is resplendent with the 
glorious presence of the divine Shekinah. The 
high priest officiates with God for the people ac- 
ceptably. The sacrificial victims are bleeding. The 
first dash of blood on the vessels and altar is 
according to law, and availing ; the next sprinkling 
is useless and sinful. The hour of termination has 
come. The fire goes out on the old altars. The 
divine glory departs forever. The vail of the tem- 
ple, rent from the top throughout, is fluttering in 
the winds of heaven. The priests sit sad before the 
mercy seat, and beasts half slain are left struggling 
around the altar. All is confusion and distraction ! 
What is the cause of this ? Look over to Calvary 
for the reason. There hangs that awful One all 
gored and dead, — the substance of all shadows. — 
the end of all the sacrifices, with the last loud cry 
pealing in its echoes through the plains of Judea — 
"It is finished ! !" 

'' 'Tis done ! the precious ransom's paid ! 
Receive my soul ! he cries: 
See where he hows his sacred head ! 
He hows his head and dies." 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR. 

PAET SECOND. 

John, xvii, 1. — " These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes 
to heaven and said, ' Father, the hour is come.' " 

The hour spoken of in the text is related to the 
offering up of Christ as a sacrifice for sin. This 
event was prefaced with important preliminaries so 
extensive and important that they had required a 
life of thirty years of poverty, suffering, sorrow, 
persecution, temptation, miracle and mercy, for 
Christ to fill out the map as drawn for Him by 
prophecy. For Christ not only came into the world 
by promise, but he also lived and died according to 
prediction, — predictions, too, which had been, pub- 
lished to the world. 

Hence, the importance, as Christ said to John, of 
fulfilling all righteousness. Not only the law, but 
the predictions must be fulfilled, or Christ would 
have denied Himself, belied the prophets, and in- 
validated the atonement. 

All these pre-requisites, Christ having passed 
through, He reaches the final hour qualified for that 
great act for which he came into the world. Pre- 
senting Himself as a spotless victim for the altar, 
with uplifted eyes he appeals to the Father for a 
ratification of the arrangement, " Glorify thy Son." 



168 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART II. 

Christ had just washed the disciples' feet, teach- 
ing them thereby a lesson of love and humility, — 
had instituted the sacrament of the last supper — had 
just said, " this cup is the New Testament in my 
blood" — notified the disciples of his departure, — 
forewarned them of the trial of their faith, and for- 
tified them with promises for the conflict. 

Judas in the meantime is stipulating with the high 
priest for the person of Christ — he is to be desig- 
nated by a kiss and delivered over to the Jerusalem 
mob, at the price of thirty pieces of silver. 

Christ, as though He would go from His knees to 
the cross, is now offering His valedictory prayer in 
which He includes the universal church, running the 
pious seed down to the last convert to Christianity, 
— taking up before the mercy seat this vast common- 
wealth of Israel. He prays for their oneness, their 
sanctification, and their glorification, " that the}' 
may be with me where I am." 

But the great struggle is at hand. Christ will 
soon be seen in the garden sweating great drops of 
blood, — from thence he will be led as a sheep to the 
slaughter. 

But it is not my design to speak of this event on 
the present occasion. My object at present in con- 
templating the final hour of the Son of God, is, to 
speak of some of its distant relations — its relations 
not only to time, but also to eternity — to moral 
character and future destiny, — that which will have 
to do with the decisions of the last day. 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART II. 169 

In the former discourse from these words, "the 
hour," of the text, Avas contemplated in its monu- 
mental character, or as a boundary in the annals of 
time, fixed upon in the divine purpose as "the full- 
ness 11 of time. A period which should terminate 
the first dispensation, and usher in the last gospel 
covenant, — changing the entire economy of the 
kingdom of grace, at least with respect to outward 
observances. 

It will appear obvious, no doubt, to all, that if 
this hour (or the events of this hour) resulted in the 
changing of dispensations, that change may affect 
man's moral character, and, of consequence, his 
future destiny; as character and destiny go together. 

The most prominent idea, then, to which the 
present discourse will be directed, has reference to 
the distant results of this hour. 

This will appear by a reference to the present ef- 
fects of Christ's comiug into the world. 

1. This hour was marked with great revelations. 

Here, that deep mystery spoken of by the Apostle 
Eph. iii, 3-4, which had been hid in God from the 
beginning of the world, should be made known. A 
mystery, he says, which in other ages was not made 
known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto 
His holy Apostles and prophets, by the Spirit. 
Here it opens in the infinitude of its designs ! Now 
the vail is taken away, and God's mind is read to the 
world. The redeeming scheme lies open in the 
length and breadth of its provisions. 
15 



170 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART II. 

2. This was an hour of the revelation of spiritual 

light. 

Here the world made a transit, as it were, from 
dubious twilight to meridian clay. This hour all 
but added a new attribute to mind, — a supplement 
to man greater than the original. Or, at least, it 
effected a change so distinct and important, in his 
moral capacities, as to lay the ground for a change 
in the strictness of his accountabilit}'. There is a 
marked difference in human responsibility, between 
those who have lived this side the final hour of the 
Son of God, and those who existed the other side. 

Hear the denunciations of Christ : — "And thou, 
Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be 
thrust down to hell ; for if the mighty works which 
have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it 
would have remained unto this day. But I say unto 
you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, 
in the day of judgment, than for thee. 7 ' " Wo unto 
thee, Chorazin ; wo unto thee, Bethsaida ! For if 
the mighty works which have been done in you, 
had been clone in Tyre and Sidon, they would have 
repented long ago, in sackcloth and ashes. But I 
say unto you," &c. " The Queen of the South shall 
rise up in the Judgment, with the men of this gene- 
ration, and shall condemn them," &c. "The men 
of Xineveh shall rise up in the Judgment, with this 
generation, and shall condemn them," &c. 

Says Christ, "If I had not come and spoken unto 
them, they had not had sin • but now they have no 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUK PART II. 171 

cloak for their sin." Yes, this hour is so fraught 
with light, that, from this period onward, iniquity 
has no apology for itself. This hour uncloaks a 
world, leaving sin speechless in the noon-day light 
of gospel revelation. 

The breaking forth of the light of this hour was 
so great that those who, at its commencement, were 
prayed for by Christ, as not knowing what they did, 
before its close were seen smiting their breasts, and 
saying, "Truly, this was the Son of God." O, how 
the great light and truth broke in on the world, 
through the scenes of Calvary ! 

Again, says Christ, Mat. xi, 11, "Among them that 
are born of women, there hath not risen a greater 
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding, he that is 
least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he." 

John was greater than all who had gone before 
him, because he stood on this dividing line, and was 
the first to catch the dawning light of Messiah day. 
He was the usher or harbinger of Gospel dispensa- 
tion. He was the greatest in the Mosaic dispensation, 
for the little there was of him of the Gospel dispensa- 
tion. Little as he knew or felt of the on-coming day 
of Christ, it so affected him in the eyes of the people 
that he was taken for Him that was to come ; so 
that a part of his message through Judea was to 
correct this mistake. 

Could we comprehend the chronology of hell, we 
might fix the date of this hour by the deeper agonies 
of the lately lost. 



172 THE MONUMENTAL HOUE PART II. 

From the marked difference in the pang and visage, 
in the capacities and guilt of the lost spirits, hell 
might be classified by a stranger, as it were, distin- 
guishing between those who existed the other side 
this great moral boundary, and those who lived in 
gospel day. 

This hour has not only formed an era in time, but 
it has also produced an epoch in eternity. For, the 
night of hell is graduated by the day of time. 

So perfect and uniform is the workings of this 
principle, that were we able to gauge the density of 
that darkness which lies on a lost spirit, we should 
have the exact degree of light in which he lived on 
earth. For every beam of light emanating from the 
Sun of Kighteousness rejected, casts a deeper shade 
on that night which has no morn beyond, — striking 
a deeper gloom, a deeper chill through the lost soul. 

Be it known to you, O, ye favored sinners, that 
the great fundamentals of hell are taken from this 
world ! They are found, not in thy inherent de- 
pravity, but in the neglect of light and truth. 
This hour of which I am speaking, this great crisis 
in the moral universe, will enter fearfully into the 
character of every sinner's eternity. 

Again, could we read up the history of heaven, 
and read it so critically as to fix the elate of those 
newer glories. — of that fresh effulgence which hangs 
on the sky of eternity, flooding all the mansions of 
Paradise, — could we determine when the loud hosan- 
nas commenced, we should have the date of the hour 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR — PART II. 173 

of the text ; for we suppose that, at this period, 
heaven keyed itself to a loftier strain, and, perhaps, 
for the first time, took up understandingly the theme 
of Eedemption. 

Again, this hour is related to the utmost limits of 
time, running time either way. It may be consid- 
ered the central point of the kingdom of grace, — the 
rallying point for the faith and hope of all ages, — 
as a promontory in the sea, so this hour stands up 
amid the ages as the great headland of hope, — a 
lighthouse amid the breakers of death and hell, where 
all is dark and stormy. 

Suppose we walk out on to this boundary which 
divides time into two parts, laying a limited ever- 
lasting on either side. From this, let us look off 
into the long years of these opposite directions, and 
we shall find a strong spiritual tendency to this 
point. 

Here we commence our reckoning in the year of 
our Lord 1851. Up to this the prophets reckoned, 
and here the definite prophetic measurement ended. 
It is true, Miller thlought they passed this boundary, 
and went on over to the other shore. He even 
thought he saw the prophetic limits of time, and 
ventured to set down his stake for the years to roll 
up to. But, instead of stopping, time rolled on — on, 
leaving Miller dead, with his measuring line in his 
hand, quite the other side of his own boundary. 

But what is the tendency of the past everlasting 
toward this hour ? 



174 THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART II. 

We go back, even to Abel, and find that he offered 
an acceptable sacrifice through the great offering of 
this hour. Yes, the hope of the Jewish church, from 
ancient Abel down to John the Baptist, took its 
direction onward to the day of Shiloh. 

Did the sacrificial beasts struggle in death ; did 
their blood flow ? From whence did these rites de- 
rive their signification? But for their relation to 
this hour, they had been useless and vain. They 
all looked over to the great Antitype for their virtue 
and importance. Does the smoke of burnt offerings, 
the cloud of holy incense rise to heaven as a sweet 
savor to God ? It derives its odor from the offering 
of Calvary. 

Does the ancient high priest enter into the holiest 
to witness the glory of the sacred place ? — that glory 
is related to the scenes of this hour. Does the high 
priest spread out his hands before God in prayer, in- 
trenched about with sacrificial beasts — with running 
blood ? Is the prayer answered ? From whence 
did the prayer derive its availability ? From the 
beasts ? It is through these that the priest goes 
over to Calvary, — to Him who is to be offered in 
the hour of the text. And from this offering he de- 
rives the great reasons why Israel may be blessed. 

And, when we turn to the everlasting to come, 
or to the future section of time, and run the ages 
down to where it shall be said that time shall be no 
more, the same tendency backward is observed — a 
universal looking back to this great epoch. 



THE MONUMENTAL HOUR PART II. 175 

We see the Gentile nations pointing to Messiah's 
day, as the opening of the door of hope, — as the 
rising sun to a benighted world. Heathens by the 
nation are going on their knees back to this hour, 
for their sacrifice of sin. This is the great rallying 
point of faith and hope for the saints of all ages. 
Here the Hottentot of our day receives remission of 
sins, where Abel obtained witness that he was right- 
eous. Here the Flathead Indian lays hold of the 
hope set before him, where Abraham stood, and 
staggered not through unbelief, but was strong in 
faith, giving glory to God. In this hour, the foun- 
tain was opened for sin, sending out its streams 
either way, until its waves of mercy beat on the 
shores of eternity at both extremes, cancelling the 
debt of the past ages, and treasuring up a fund of 
merit for the world to come. 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

John xvii, 1. — : * These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes 
to heaven-, and said, 'Father, the hour is come.'" 

I come at last to notice in this sermon the events 
and circumstances of the final hour of the Son of 
God. For it has come, — the final crisis is at hand. 
The great conflict for which Christ came into the 
world is now at the door, — a conflict between sin 
and penalty, life and death, heaven and hell. A 
conflict in which are marshalled the moral antag- 
onisms of the universe. A conflict involving the 
honor of the eternal throne — the perpetuity of 
God's kingdom — the right of all departed saints to 
their present heaven — the ratification of the doom 
of all sinners who have died in rejection of Him 
who was to come — the overthrow of the dominions 
of death — the subjugation of the powers of hell, 
and the eternal bliss of believers ! 

How the infinitudes crowd into this hour. Christ 
already forebodes the coming crisis — the lone part 
He is to take against death and hell in this fearful 
tragedy ! For, his relations, natural and assumed, 
place Him in challenged attitude to three worlds. 

This world is against Him, because He testified 
of it that its deeds were evil. Perdition is against 
him for his published purpose to bruise Satan's head, 
and to lead captivity captive. Heaven must frown 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 177 

because He has assumed the sinner's condition and 
punishment, — taking the scaffold for a world of sin- 
ners lost — hence, He must be dealt with as a sinner. 

Christ, at the time that He uttered the words of 
the text, seems to be preparing himself for the final 
hour. Probably knelt in prayer, looking up to 
heaven — to His native abode and throne, as if to 
cheer His sonl by visions of the glory which He had 
with the Father before the world was, before enter- 
ing the dark gloom which is already casting its 
death chill on his soul ! Then, glancing along down 
the coming extended triumphs of his death — sum- 
ming up His heathen inheritance and Gentile con- 
verts—surveying the outposts of death's dominions 
as his final possessions — setting the joy before Him, 
that He may endure the cross, despising the shame, 
and pass through those pangs which are soon to 
give utterance to that sorrow which is unto death ! 

Some of these events and circumstances I will 
refer to. 

I. First : This hour is marked with the extreme 
impoverishment of the Son of God. 

Two qualities seem essential to an adequate Ee- 
deemer, viz.: Real divinity in union with perfect 
humanity, and so united as to constitute but one 
person. Hence, the necessity of the Divine impov- 
erishment. To bring the Infinite within union limits 
of the finite, there must be an emptying of the 
infinitudes beyond what we can understand. We 
can see this, however, that it must be a long and 



178 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

downward way from the eternal throne to a stable. 
The distance seems vast between creating worlds out 
of nothing, and hying an infant in a manger. What 
impoverishment ! What a letting down ! From 
the throne of glory, worshipped b} T angel and arch- 
angel, who cry holy, holy, holy, to the title of 
carpenter's son ! 

But these are only the first degrees in the series 
of humiliations. He is to be led in cords, a bound 
captive to a criminal court, and tried for His life ! 
Yes ! He who could beckon to His aid myriads of 
the strong and mighty angels, consents to stand 
alone in Pilate's court, and take the smitings, and 
spittings and mockings without complaint, as though 
He were destitute of honor, virtue, innocence, argu- 
ment, plea or apology — friendless, homeless, penni- 
less ! 

Yes ! He, who by mere volition could wake the 
great thunders, and put the great earthquakes into 
spasms, rocking the globe from pole to pole, con- 
sented to be cuffed about by the wicked mob of 
Jerusalem ! Then standing still and speechless 
for the crown of thorns and mock robe to be put 
upon Him, and taunted with being King. But He 
goes still lower when He consents to be esteemed 
less — yea, more vile and base than Barrabas. Yes, 
brethren, our adorable Savior went so low that vile 
and wicked Barrabas stood above him in the decision 
of sinners ! 

But He touches the depths of ignominy, so deep 



/ 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 179 

and dark as well nigh to touch hell itself, when He 
consented to die on the cross between thieves ! He 
who once said, " Let there be light, and there was 
light," consents to hang in midnight gloom, and die 
in the gateway of hell for the salvation of sinners ! 

Do you object to this great humiliation and abase- 
ment, as derogatory to the Divinity of Christ ? 
That, in His low coming down He became abstracted 
from the God of His being ? 

Nay, brethren ! I see in this becoming poor for 
our sakes the signs and signals of that Divinity. 
God is revealed in the stoop ! Yea, more fully re- 
vealed than in creation ! In the production of worlds 
we see His wisdom and poAver. But when He lets 
Himself down ! — down ! — from throne to manger, 
we not only see His power, but we feel His love ! 
Here He comes into the neighborhood of our percep- 
tions ; we feel Him. This coming to ignominy for 
sinners, reveals depths of hidden Deity which the 
history of eternity fails to make known. In this we 
are made acquainted with the soul of the Eternal, 
Almighty, Omniscient ! Here is the soul of the 
Divine attributes. This is it* Love unto death ; even 
the death of the cross. Here we see the Lamb led 
to the slaughter, and the Sheep dumb before his 
shearers, opening not His month. Here is the God- 
head abasement ; the becoming poor which enriched 
the world. 

Let angels vail their faces — let sinners put on 
sack-cloth, when eternity's Eternal — when the won- 



180 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

derful Counsellor, the mighty God and Prince of 
Peace consents to become less than Barrabas, and 
hang on the cross of Calvary for sinful man ! 

II. Second: This hour marks the culmination of 
moral conflicts. 

It was far from the purpose of Christ to select an 
eas}^ passage from the throne to the grave. Nor 
yet to beg his wa} r back from the grave to the 
throne. He took the thorny passage, through hostile 
regions ; His purpose having been published before- 
hand, of spoiling principalities and powers. The 
opposition had rallied, ready with sword and buckler 
on, to meet this aggressor upon death's empire. 

We are not to suppose that the coming of Christ 
to this world was the bursting forth of an unlooked 
for event. Nay ! Heaven, earth and hell were all 
astir with excitement over the foretokens of His 
approach. The arch leader of hell's hosts stood in 
hopeful attitude for the coming of the Son of God 
within his reach ; for he knew they were destined 
to meet on this old battlefield of four thousand 
years' dispute. And, no doubt, he had improved 
that long period in slandering the holy God, and 
exciting hate against Jesus Christ. For we are to 
recollect that Satan was on the field in advance of 
Christ. The Kingdom of God on earth had been 
maintained at great disadvantage. The communica- 
tions between the mother country and this colony 
were distant and dubious. The intercourse was at 
arm's length ; God speaking to man in dreams and 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 181 

visions, types and shadows, while Satan and his sat- 
elites had unobstructed ingress and egress, coming 
in close contact with the race in every generation. 
Here the fallen spirits had resorted for the long 
years to pour out their great wrath against God and 
the Lamb. For they live on hate, against Jesus 
especially. (What a resemblance there is here be- 
tween devil and infidel. How like father and son 
they look, when Jesus is the topic.) 

Here let us take a broad view of the moral con- 
dition of things. Here is a world of depraved human 
beings, located in the neighborhood of the fallen 
principalities and powers, while heaven is obscurely 
distant. Here men, inspired by demon hate, had 
learned to blaspheme God and the Lamb, till this 
world had become the great field of prey for hell, — 
growing white with the bleaching bones of genera- 
tions. The holy God was but little known in this 
region and shadow of death, except in power and 
wrath. He had drowned the world once. That 
they knew, for the signs of that terrible overthrow 
were visible everywhere. He had opened the earth 
and swallowed up man and beast. That they knew, 
for the yawning chasms were left. He had also 
sent fire from heaven and burned up cities, leaving 
the scorchino's visible for centuries. These sioms of 
wrath were Satan's text, no doubt, for 'preaching 
man-hate to God, while the love side of the Infinite 
was dark and obscure. 

The greatest manifestations of love were in an old 
16 



182 THE DECISIVE HOUE. 

promise, sleeping in the mildew of ages, as infidelity 
would construe it, while signs of wrath were every- 
where visible. And now, after the world had hung 
with naked hands on this bare promise for four thou- 
sand years, and at last, after this long, dubious, doubt- 
ful waiting, to accept of a grown-up child, first cradled 
in a manger, and grown up in their midst, as the 
best pledge the Infinite God could give for a promise 
of so long standing, — and then, after thirty years' 
hoping, fearing, waiting, for the signs of a mighty 
conqueror to appear in the Nazarene, — that he should 
in his full manhood strength, be seen escaping for 
his life out of the hands of mortal men, — is it any- 
thing strange that devils should wax bold, and hope 
grow faint in the Kingdom of God ? 

After all this educated prejudice, inspired hate 
and deferred hope, the question of the redemption 
of the world by this Nazarene, and that by love 
unto death, becomes intensely exciting. It is not 
(with believers, at least) whether Christ can awe 
down malice and murder by His almighty power ; 
for a living Lazarus and the withered fig tree settle 
the question of power, at least, with the disciples j 
but, the mystery is, that a Being of such almighti- 
ness should go forth to conquest in the lamb-like 
spirit, opening not his mouth. Passing in meekness 
and lowliness through the spittings and smitings and 
mockings, bearing the mock robes of royalty under 
the hootings of a Jerusalem mob. That He, who, 
by a word, could petrify the tempest, hushing tumult 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 183 

into calm — that such an One should consent to un- 
clothe His arm of thunder, stay back the enginery 
of ruin — laying off His terribleness, down to naked 
love, and go forth, single-handed and alone, into the 
trade-wind storm of three worlds, and meet and 
match the nursed hate of four thousand years, and 
hush it eternally dumb by the power of love ! Here 
is the GOD of the transaction ! This is the mystery 
— this the triumph ! ! 

Here (though with a terrible clash) the revolution 
of the moral world is reversed, — changing the tense 
of hope — the tense of faith and song — wheeling 
future into past — adding to heaven its highest glory 
— doubling the doom of hell ! 

I was reading a sermon recently, in which the 
author charged the cruelties inflicted on Christ to 
the decree of God. Or, at best, that God had de- 
creed the crucifixion as it took place. And he 
proved it from the following passage, viz.: "Him 
being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 
knowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked 
hands have crucified and slain." As this passage is 
used to considerable extent for the justification of 
wickedness, it may be well to pause a little here. 
The passage refers to two distinct and separate 
transactions. First, Christ was delivered — brought 
forth, as the victim for the altar, to be offered up 
for the sins of the world. In this coming forth in 
the form of human nature, he was brought within 
reach of his enemies. Here ends God's part of the 



184 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

transaction. And, just at this point, the man act of 
the tragedy, and that which makes it such, sets in. 
Men finding Christ within their reach, they take 
Him, and with wicked hands crucify and slay Him. 
But, you say, " was not all this predicted, and must 
it not be fulfilled ?" Certainly. But prediction 
does not necessarily indicate God's preference or 
purpose, while decree does. Then, to decree wick- 
edness in such a world as this, seems superfluous, 
Wickedness is sure enough for the purposes of 
prophecy, or anything else, without the aid of eternal 
decree. Were goodness predicted, the Infinite might 
find it necessary to back it up with decree. But, 
just as if depraved humanity, confederate with devils, 
were not equal to all the wickedness that is import- 
ant to have committed, without the holy God going 
into league with hell to make it sure ! Christ would 
have been put to death long before He was, had He 
not prevented it, either by escaping out of the hands 
of His enemies, or by restraining their wrath. For 
wherever He went, murder lay in ambush for Him. 
So far from this wickedness needing eternal decree 
to hold it up to its bloody purpose, it required 
Almighty power to baffle and delay it till the pre- 
dicted hour should arrive for Christ to lay down 
His life. This murderous spirit was put under the 
lets and hindrances of Omnipotence for its time of 
action. Christ, for days and weeks, walked through 
paralytic murder. Like ferocious beasts on the 
snuff of blood, crouching from their lairs in the 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 185 

attitude of fatal spring, so, through the grates of the 
bottomless pit, and all along the pathway of God 
incarnate, demon hate lay peering from dark am- 
bush, with foam on his teeth, gleaming hell wrath 
from his eye. But the almighty restraint lay heav}-, 
like great night-mare, on the confederate wrath of 
earth and hell, holding down the infernalism of the 
universe till prediction's last hour should strike. 

This restraint was such, at one time, that the mur- 
derers went backward and fell to the ground. This 
wakeful suspicion through the fallen world that the 
reign of sin and death is to be disputed, is marvel- 
ous. Palpitation has seized the heart of anti-Christ 
everywhere, and apprehension stares wild from all 
eyes ! Where did this rousing of hell's hosts come 
from ? Ah, brethren, there's a cause ! It's related 
to Bethlehem of Juclea ! 

That great event of God's incarnation, was the 
spiritual rubicon crossed, — crossed, I might say, on 
the lee shore, or hell side of the dominions of death, 
bringing the Saviour in contact with sin's ruin as well 
as sin's cause. God's incarnate touch of earth was 
felt ! Trembling went through the knees of rebel- 
lion, as from a battery ! This event is read every- 
where, as a challenge to the contest with the fallen 
powers ; for we are to recollect that hell's conster- 
nation comes by the way of the seed of the woman. 

The drowning of the world, the burning of cities, 
has no note of alarm to anti-Christ. These judg- 
ments only give to death his prey. But O the seed 



186 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

of the woman ! This carries the knell of defeat ! 
There's not enginery enough in all the arsenals of 
Jehovah to match in terribleness to hell that one 
expression, " Seed of the woman !" 

I see the frontiers of man's abode sentineled day 
and night, on the lookout for " Seed of the woman." 
That's the charge to every sentinel. "Let Sinai 
shake and smoke, — let thunder go by without a 
note, but keep a steady lookout for incarnation." 

Have I exaggerated this wrath and apprehension ? 
How otherwise can we account for the early manifes- 
tations of hate, to Christ ? For, while His humanity 
yet lay an infant in Bethlehem, the apocalyptic beast 
came forth in great wrath, shaking foam from his 
soul ; and everywhere the whetting of swords set 
in. The bustle in the fallen world is everywhere 
manifest. Herod and all Jerusalem are wild with 
apprehension ; and to make sure of the God in flesh, 
all the children up to two years old were drove to 
the slaughter. Here is the Christ-murder I have 
been trying to describe, which some of my hearers 
may suspect as being too poetical for fact. Well, 
here is fact. Take your choice. If facts help the 
satan side of the case, he ought to have their advan- 
tage. Only, note this, that this is only the babe hate 
of Christ, before He had spoken. Here, in blood, 
all through the land, where innocent children, as by 
one swing of the scythe, are cut down to death, 
leaving a clean gap in humanity of two year's width. 
This is how much the incarnation was hated. 



THE DECISIVE HOUK. 187 

Here put down your measure deep and red, then 
calculate on what the roused hate and murder will 
be when the Nazarene shall contradict sin in high 
places, and pronounce a woe on the functionaries of 
a fallen church, opening whitecl hypocrisy down to 
dead men's bones, — when the God manifest in flesh 
shall shake the gates of hell, and the great spoiling 
of principalities and powers shall set in. 

III. Third : This is an hour of mysterious suffer- 
ing. 

I may be in error in my views of Christ's death 
and sufferings, and wish to speak modestly and 
reverently of a subject so deep and mysterious. 
Not that I expect to instruct those who have given 
the subject a careful consideration. But there are 
those who take a very superficial view of this mys- 
terious scene. 

Even some preaching makes Christ's sufferings to 
consist chiefly, if not solely, in bodily cruelties 
inflicted, letting this whole transaction down to only 
a bad murder case ; and the murder, too, of the 
innocent Saviour. While all this is true, and should 
be presented, for it is calculated to attract our 
attention, and especially that .of children and igno- 
rant people, it is far from being the whole truth. 
This makes the world's redemption hang too much 
on bodily suffering. It 's too physical. It 's the car- 
nal or sight view — just what a photograph would 
give us. 

We might as well gird up for an inlook beyond 



188 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

the visible, into the great God mystery ; for we 
have it here. And the very mystery, too, which 
has perplexed Angels for ages. 

The general question of substitution involves some 
points of disagreement with theologians of long 
standing. These different opinions I have nothing 
to do with as matters of controversy ; neither do I 
expect to instruct the learned on the subject. But, 
if the Spirit can so enlighten my mind, and indite 
my words in speaking, that the common people will 
not only hear me gladly, but will also be led to a 
higher appreciation of this nrysterious transaction, I 
shall be thankful and happy. 

I take this view of our atonement by the offering 
of Jesus Christ in our stead, 

1. That if the injured party — the Being sinned 
against, could consent to substitute His Son for the 
sinner's liability to penalty, He had the right to so 
modify that penalty in the substitute as to make it 
possible for Him to meet its claims. 

2. That substitute suffering is necessarily involved 
in the substitution of person, and may extend either 
to the manner of suffering, or to its degree, or both. 

3. That God, the offended, has decided that His 
manifestation in the flesh — in the person of Jesus 
Christ, and suffering and dying in his human soul 
and body, in union with the Divine nature, should 
be a sufficient indemnification of the claims of law 
and justice against the hereditary depravity of the 
world, by which the second Adam makes good the 



THE DECISIVE HOUK. 189 

failures of the first before the law. So that, if all 
men coulcl die in infancy, previous to actual trans- 
gression, all men could and would be saved, — "That 
as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive." Christ's life shall match Adam's death, 
both in nature and degree. As soul and body died 
in Adam, " even so" shall soul and body live in 
Christ. As the race died in Adam passively, that is 
without their fault, " even so" shall all men be 
made alive in Christ passively, that is without their 
faith or obedience, because infants cannot obey. 

There we stand then with the books squared to 
date. By the provisions of this wonderful bankrupt 
law, humanity is placed on a more hopeful footing 
for the future, with a clean record for the past. 
Here are the effects of two Adams. Effects in death 
and life flowing abreast in human existence, in 
solemn, earnest, unabated tide ; only the life is 
more than the death. Sin is more than cured ! 
Grace much more abounds ! Glory to God ! The 
second Adam is more than a match for the first. 
The seed of the woman is more than the woman ! 
Jesus Christ can out-life the death of all the race run- 
ning up to fountain head and down to distant stream. 

4. Again : This offering up of the immaculate 
Redeemer for the unholy and the lost, is considered 
an all-sufficient reason, both by infinite wisdom and 
holiness, and by the moral sense of the universe, 
why God can be just, and yet the justifier of him 
that believeth in Jesus. 



190 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

5. That this declaration of His righteousness 
should be considered a sufficient vindication of the 
unchangeable rectitude of Jehovah's throne ; — of 
His eternal, implacable hatred to sin, and His undy- 
ing love for lost men. 

6. That the rigorous execution of law for the full 
measure of suffering from man's substitute, should 
be a sufficient guarantee for the punishment of trans- 
gressors in all coming time and eternity. 

On this declaration of His righteousness — this 
wondrous manifesto of unchangeable law and attri- 
bute, the Infinite God goes forth to the administration 
of the universe. According to the unchangeable 
oath of God before this declared righteousness, shall 
the rebellion of earth and hell come to its knees at 
last in sad dismay, The mouth of gain save rs shall 
be stopped, uniting all tongues on the confession of 
Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. 

After these preliminaries, let us reverently turn 
to the sufferings. 

The Lord help a mortal man to speak here ! The 
principal objection to the idea that Christ took the 
sinner's place for the sinner's suffering, is in the 
irreverent supposition that He must, in this case, 
suffer conscious guilt, which seems impossible. 
Christ took our place for the suffering of adminis- 
tered or inflicted penalty. Guilt belongs to actual 
sin, and not to penalty. It's the natural pain con- 
sequent on the violation of our moral sense — the 
after-taste of sin, and belongs to it as an effect, the 



THE DECISIVE HOUK. 191 

same as volition belongs to it as a fact. Xeither one 
nor the other can be taken from it, or added to it, 
by any outside administrations. 

We get no such idea either from the government 
of God or man, that conscious guilt makes a part of 
the penalty of law. Conscious guilt is beyond the 
power of penalty, or pardon either. And we can see 
no possibility of relief from this intolerable distress, 
except in that gracious provision by which Christ 
takes our sins away, when our guilt goes with them. 

Three things, at least, enter into the sinner's pen- 
alty, viz.: Death of soul and body; the wrath of 
God, and banishment from his presence. These three 
particulars, in a modified form, enter into the myste- 
rious sufferings of our Substitute. The supposition 
that Christ's death was caused by inflicted cruelties, 
will hardly comport with His declaration when He 
says, " No man taketh my life from me ; but I lay 
it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, 
and I have power to take it again. 77 John x, 18. 

Christ did not begin to die in His feet and hands, 
by the piercing of nails. It seems to me that His 
death was soul caused That the dying commenced 
in the garden, and that the life of the body was 
swallowed up of soul death. 

It seems that Christ came up to the garden con- 
flict unexpectedly; at least to his humau nature. 
He enters into a strauge experience. Suddenly, a 
deep, dark shudder goes through His soul, and an 
agony sets in, foreboding the terribleness of the 



192 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

conflict ! He cries out for escape, — for deliverance ! 
Is there no possible way out of this extremity ? In 
all the prerogatives of the Eternal Throne — in all 
the wisdom of Infinite God — in all the deep tender- 
ness of Eternal Father's love, can there not be found 
a possible escape from an hour like this ? Is there 
no turning aside here — is there no delay — no miti- 
gation of this soul pressure ? Is the redemption of 
the world so beset with the dark impossibles that 
there is but this one solitary expedient in the universe 
equal to the emergency? Has the world's ruin drifted 
so far out of the reach of Almighty interposition 
that its last hope trembles on the issues of this hour ? 
A strange word indeed for mortals to speak or think, 
but so it is. There's not found, within the infinite 
resources of Eternal Father, a possible out of 
this crisis ! There's no alternative — there's no sub- 
stitute — there's no postponement ! The Infinitudes 
are shut up to momentous necessity ! The predic- 
tions have gone forth with God's yea and amen. The 
heralds of irrevocable decisions are out, on Divine 
authority. The oaths are taken and recorded; while 
the honor and veracity of Eternal Throne are staked 
on the obedience of God's Son. 

Now comes that great word of ratification and 
acquiescence! " Nevertheless, not my will but Thine 
be done!" On that one great word, "Neverthe- 
less," hung the doom of the world ! 

On its utterance I seem to hear the rustling of 
white robes around the throne, while the gates of 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 193 

Paradise go np of their own accord, and the ever- 
lasting doors give way, as tokens of Messiah's 
triumph ! Glory and honor be ascribed to Jesus, 
our Saviour ! He accepted the necessity, and took 
od the mighty load of curse. It is called agony. 
Think of an internal agony so crushing — so bruising 
— agony distorting soul, transfixing body — raging 
all through the being, with a soul pressure which 
drives blood out at every pore — drops of blood — 
great drops of blood falling to the ground ! What 
bruising is here ! Oh ! how the stripes are dealt out ! 

Recollect, brethren, that our Substitute brings to 
the altar a perfect, healthy humanity. This is one 
of the essentials of our sacrifice, typified all along 
by the sacrificial beasts without blemish. Here is 
manhood strength, free from weakness and disease, 
taking in soul sorrow and agony, drinking death as 
from a cup — a cup drugged with the sinner's curse, 
and death and wo, — containing the death taste for 
every man ! Is it remarkable that a being, preyed 
upon by death in myriads, should fall to the ground 
and sweat blood ? The marvel is that He survived 
the first swell of this incoming tide of sorrow and 
death — death dark in hell's own night ! Hence the 
interposition of an angel strengthening Him, — hold- 
ing up this lone, desolate victim of the sinner's storm 
till death's last dark surge should come in ! 

Here vicarious suffering commences. But it may 
not terminate here, as important predictions are yet 
to be fulfilled in connection with his trial and cruci- 

17 



194 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

fixion. The crucifixion was not only important in this 
respect : it developed, also, great facts. It demon- 
strated the love of God to the world by the manner 
of its expression. Its manifestation came within the 
scope of our perceptions and sympathies, approach- 
ing man through his animal instincts, which is the 
most hopeful side of humanity depraved. It also 
furnished an occasion for the manifestation of human 
malice and murder against holiness and God, which 
forever settles the question of human depravity, and 
the necessity of Christ's death to save a race so 
deeply lost. 

But when we come to the third particular in the 
sinner's penalty, assumed by Christ, viz.: banish- 
ment from God, we are startled with manifested 
agony from an unexpected source. Christ had passed 
through a series of persecutions and sufferings and 
ignominy, represented as the bulls of Bashan gaping 
upon Him with their mouths — as compassed about 
with dogs — being in the mouth of lions, and tossed 
on the horns of unicorns, &c. All the long years 
of His sojourn with sinful man, He had endured 
patiently. In all this impious, barbarous treatment 
of wagging heads — of taunting and mocking — of 
spitting and smiting ; then, when they came to the 
terrible work of driving nails and uplifting, no mur- 
mur is heard — no word of lament escapes His lips. 

But when the banishment sets in, a new pang is 
inflicted. As if an arrow went through His soul, 
He cries out under the shock ! That deep, loud 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 195 

wail of "Eloi, Eloi," is enough to subdue men and 
disarm hell. No marvel that blasphemous lips should 
confess Him the Son of God. This seems to be the 
great suffering, to be bereft of heavenly light and 
cheer — to have the divine supports give way all at 
once, and immaculate humanity left alone, hung up 
on the bleak brow of hell to die, out of sight of 
friendship, of God and heaven. 

And then, to heighten the gloominess of the 
storm, the forsaking by the Divine presence must be 
attended with outer darkness. As if retiring Deity 
had spread sackcloth of hair over the sun, and beck- 
oning the last beam of light after Him, bringing in 
double night on the desolate Gallilean ! His heart 
breaks within him — his life is chilled out of him — he 
dies of darkness — of awful midnight ! 

Let all rejectors of Jesus Christ read in this scene 
the nature of that doom which hangs over their 
souls to-day. Your rejection of Jesus Christ is the 
condition on which He rejects your penalty ! Think 
of this, O man, that in neglecting Jesus as your 
Saviour, you decide to meet the sinner's penalty ! 
Here, in Christ's sufferings, read what that penalty 
is. You have probably been wont to put but a low 
estimate on this last curse of a sinner's woe, viz.: 
banishment from God. Let us learn from the visible 
manifestations of sufferings in our Substitute, where 
to fathom for the deeper sorrow. 

Here is a Being who could endure with composure 
all the slang of mortal tongues, so crucifying to his 



196 THE DECISIVE HOUK. 

feelings and dignity,— He could carry a soul agony 
that brought blood from every pore, — He could 
withstand the spiking of hands and feet to the hard 
wood — He has gone through with the sinner's pen- 
alty up to this, with life in him ; but when the ban- 
ishment comes on — when this last curse swell of 
intolerable night breaks over Him, so charged with 
oppressive woe, breaking all through the being, 
carrying life's last hold before it, a piercing cry of 
"Eloi" is heard, and all is still. 

Christ's actual death was caused by an assumption 
of the sinner's curse. His apparent death was by 
crucifixion. He voluntarily laid down His life, a 
sacrifice for sin. Again, in the intention and perpe- 
tration of wicked men, He was taken, crucified and 
slain. A double death contrived in one. 

As an illustration, take the criminal under sentence 
of execution by the decree of law. An old enemy 
of his is ready to take his life at the first opportu- 
nity. But at present, the prison walls prevent the 
bloody purpose. But on the day of execution, he 
awaits his last chance, and just as the rope is cut 
and the drop falls — while in the falling, this enemy 
with drawn revolver and steady aim puts a ball 
through his body — it' s a mortal wound. But the 
culprit does not die of the shooting. The halter, 
death by decree of law, being more violent and 
speedy, narrowly plucks life from murder. This 
hair-breadth circumstance, however, is no mitigation 
of the crime committed. So by the decree of God, 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 197 

Christ voluntarily laid clown a full, unabated life as 
a sacrifice for sin. His sacrificial death being more 
violent and speedy, barely snatching life from the 
spear, though with death's steady aim on Him, He 
carries an unscarred and unscathed life through to 
the Holy of holies, laying a full and perfect sacrifice 
on the world's great sin atoning altar, leaving cruci- 
fixion dealing death blows on life's shadows. Hence 
the surprise of the murderers that He was so soon 
dead. Then His fainting on the way to crucifixion. 
It seems to me that it was not caused by bearing the 
cross so much as from the intolerable death within 
him. He went to Calvary trembling and reeling 
under sacrificial dying. Then, the reasoning of the 
Centurion who stood beholding the scene. He says, 
"truly this man was the Son of God." And what 
was his evidence ? It was that he cried so loud and 
strong so near the time of giving up the ghost. He 
knew it was not natural for life to go out with such 
a rush in crucifixion. This strange, supernatural 
dying had in it proofs of His Divinity. Then, 
Pilate is surprised also that He w r as so soon dead, 
and could not believe it till he had called a witness. 
It was so strange and astonishing, the like was never 
known. Then when they came to the breaking of 
legs, and find Christ already dead, they seem to 
awake to their defeat, and indignantly turn away, 
suspending the crucifixion before it is through ; 
murder failing on its last blow for want of some- 
thing to strike. But one of the executioners stabs 



198 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

His dead heart — the climax of earth and hell's 
defeat. Yes, yes ! there's the chagrin of hell, that 
in laying down his life instead of its being taken 
from him by slow tortures, he has disappointed 
murder of half his banquet. He has made good his 
word after all where He said " No man taketh my 
life from me." 

"We devils and men have done our last to put 
this imposter to death. But after all our watching 
and guarding, — our binding and nailing, it is mani- 
fest that by some power above us, somewhere and 
somehow there has been a work going on here not 
of our making, — we are defeated at last. He has 
taken his life out of our hands after all, and had his 
own way in dying just as He said He would. But 
let the punishers of blasphemers and the guardians 
of the good morals of the world take courage, we 
have one hope left. Let the brotherhood of hell 
come forth to our last hope. If in living and dying 
this being has defeated us, let us at least be able to 
triumph over this Nazarene dead. You know He 
said "after three days I will rise again." Now, 
every man to his post. You have a watch ; go 
make it as sure as you can, for, bad as this error is, 
if we fail of keeping Him dead, the last error will 
be worse than the first !" 

Amen ! Do your best this time ; but look out 
for the third day ! ! 

" For soon he' 11 break death's strongest chain, 
And in full triumph rise." 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 199 

IV. Fourth and last: This is the hour of triumph ! 

Notwithstanding Christ had been condemned by 
the dignitaries of the National church, and his name 
made a hissing and reproach among men, yet that 
case of desperate wickedness hanging by His side, 
believes in Him, and there before that wagging, 
mocking throng, confesses the Saviour and prays to 
Him. Christ, though beset about with the pains of 
a two-fold death, turns aside, even in dying, to hear 
his prayer. And then, in ratification of His mission 
and His triumph surnames him " Calvary convert," 
sending his soul on to eternal blessedness. And 
ere that sun went down, a redeemed thief enters 
Paradise as the first trophy of gospel dispensation, 
and pledge to patriarchs and prophets that the 
incarnation had triumphed. 

Then, as if to demonstrate His power over death 
and the grave, He let slip a shock of resurrection 
life, and the old Jerusalem graves began to rock and 
open. The saints under this prelude shock of im- 
mortality, sat up in their coffins, laid off their 
napkins, facing the great clue east, the birthplace of 
brightness and of worlds, they saw resurrection 
morn breaking. 

Although the conviction is rapidly spreading with 
certain classes that this is the true Messiah who dies 
to-day, yet with others the fact is desperately with- 
stood. One possible contingency yet remains. The 
last grand demonstration lingers. On this, wicked? 
ness takes courage. The resurrection, — the final 



200 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

yea and amen, — the sign and seal of all that has 
gone before, may fail after all. For it' s not enough 
that Christ should have the victory in living and in 
dying ; the most perilous point in all this terrible 
conflict is, in being dead. Not so much in dying as 
in living, after three days dead ! Not so much in 
going from life to death, — that' s an every-day 
occurrence, — but, " can this carpenter's son come 
from death to life ?" Can He wheel from a three 
day's process in the dominions of corruption and 
come forth ? In the negative of this question lies 
hell's last hope. Yes ! And it is from this three 
days out from life's extremest point, this lone land 
of reigning silence and corruption, the dominion of 
darkness and of dead men's bones, that God Em- 
manuel will bring the greatest triumphs known to 
angels and men, to earth or heaven ! Glory and 
honor be given to Him who is the Eesurrection and 
the Life ! 

Can it be possible that Christ can withstand the 
disadvantages of a three day's armistice on His side 
only ? — vacating the world of God, as it were, with 
the kingdom unguarded, leaving the heritage open 
to hell's utmost spoiling, while heaven's last hope 
lies dead and in the enemies' hands ? Who is this 
that can retake His dead self and come forth, bring- 
ing triumph to a three days' abandoned world and 
cause ? Think of this desolate earth in double 
night ! Two suns going into total eclipse at once ! 
Jerusalem lit with candles at noon ! 



THE DECISIVE HOUR. 201 

Rocks rending — earth heaving — graves opening — 
disciples fleeing, and devils ail-but jubilant over the 
failure of the Son of God ! This is the condition of 
things through which the Lord's Anointed is to 
bring his triumphs. Three days dead at such a time 
as this, seems hopeless. No signs in heaven above 
or on earth beneath, of Divine interposition or 
attention — no star from the East — no witnessing 
shepherds or shouting angels, foretokening goodwill, 
or even signs of wrath ; earthquakes and thunders 
seem discouraged. Moral progressions have not 
only come to a stop, but are actually relapsing. 
Darkness is coming into the world at every point — 
spiritual darkness lies on soul too dark for breath — 
too heavy for pendulums to swing — the tick of time 
grows fainter and still fainter under the weight of 
night. O, what a condition ! If Christ does not rise, 
how meaningless all the past ! All prophecy must 
be dumb with its own confusion, and the pretense of 
ancient rites and ceremonies, the ridicule of ages. 
With a dead Christ is sepulchred human hope, and 
here the entombment of immortality. In Joseph's 
tomb more than three days, and the universe is bank- 
rupt, with the infidel motto emblazoned on its ban- 
ner, "He saved others ; Himself he could not save." 

But now has come the hour where culminates the des- 
tiny of the universe, and lo ! Immortality approaches 
the tomb, reaches forth her sceptre, and Jesus, in 
in the calm dignity of triumph, arises and walks 
forth a conqueror. 



202 THE DECISIVE HOUR. 

All worlds are stirred. Earth, the most concerned, 
is so unused to joy and jubilee, waits for coming 
trophies ere she sings her triumphal song. But 
heaven is ready for the swells and praises, and for 
the first time that sublime peal is heard rolling down 
the oncoming ages, " Worthy, worthy, worthy is the 
Lamb." Now Prophecy bends under the weight of 
its tremendous meaning ; rites and ceremonies are 
burdened with the significance of universal destiny, 
and Calvary henceforth attracts the gaze of the 
Universe. 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

2d Thess. i. 10. — "When He shall come to be glorified in His 
saints, and admired in all them that believe." 

There is to be a vast difference between the first 
and second coming of Christ to this world. 

In the first He came as a man, — a " man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief," — to die for men. In the 
second He will come to judge the world. 

The first was marked by lowliness and poverty, 
with persecution and murder. In the second He 
shall be attended with His mighty Angels inflaming 
fire. 

In the first He was called the Nazarene — the car- 
penter's son — the deceiver — the Beelzebub. In His 
second coming He is to be glorified — glorified in 
His Saints. 

The text contains two particulars : 

1. That the Church is the glory of Christ ! 

By the Church is meant the saints — the holy ones ; 
the subjects of the Kingdom of Grace. 

I do not mean that the Church will constitute one 
of the glories of Christ, with many others, I mean 
more, that the Church will constitute the only glory 
of Jesus Christ as the Redeeming God ! 

As the Divine Son, He was glorious — all glorious 
before the world was. As God, He possesses inhe- 
rent, underived glory in Himself, independent of 



204 THE CHURCH TPIE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

works and worlds. But as Jesus Christ, the Re- 
deemer of mankind, the Church constitutes his only 
source of glory. 

It is true, we read of the glory of the heavens, — 
of other works and other worlds ; and that for His 
glory they are and were created. But all other 
works and worlds are subordinate to His great re- 
deeming work, — to His great Church glory: — for all 
creatures, things and worlds are contrived for the 
glorification of man ; and, since the fall, all are made 
subservient to this one idea, the redemption of the 
human race by Christ Jesus. 

There is but one great leading idea with the Infi- 
nite (as far as we know) out of Himself ; and that 
is the redemption and glorification of humanity. 
This is the object proposed — the end to be accom- 
plished. And all things pertaining to creation, outside 
of this object, occupy the relation of means. Even 
our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has humbled Himself to 
this relation. He has entered into the system of 
means, with His infinite mercy, power and atonement; 
with angel and arch-angel, along with lower agencies 
and influences ; wielding elements, natures and 
worlds for the salvation of man. 

And when the numbers and measures are filled, 
and the wondrous processes are worked out, — the 
triumphs of truth are celebrated from pole to pole, 
the kingdoms of this world wheeling into the grand 
procession of Israel's tribes (a nation being born 
unto God in a clay) and the work of redemption 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 205 

being closed up, these outer works and worlds shall 
be taken clown. 

As the scaffolding, when the mansion is finished, 
is brought down with a reckless hand, as being of 
no more account, and the edifice, for the first, 
appears in its fair proportions and perfect finish, 
unobstructed by the huge lattice-work of scaffolding, 
so, when redemption shall be consummated, with 
the capstone shout of grace unto it, these outer fixings 
and means shall disappear. Yes, disappear with a 
careless hand, as, by one swoop of God's power, shall 
world crash on world, and their dust swept as by 
the breath of God, and creation's mission fulfilled. 

Then shall the fair inheritance of Jesus Christ 
appear all resplendent with glory Divine. Then, 
when there is nothing to divert the vision, shall 
Christ display the trophies of His Cross to the ad- 
miration of all intelligences. 

The Christian ! O, what a being ! The Saint ! O, 
mystery deep ! Part Divine ! The offspring of two 
worlds ! The meaning of all means — the signification 
of all things — the purchase of the Kedeemer's death 
— highest star in Messiah's crown — the glory of Him 
that was, and is, and is to come — the Lord Almighty ! 

The question will arise, "How are the saints to 
glorify Jesus Christ when He appears ?" 

The bare fact that they are there — their very exist- 
ence as saints, after the perils through which they 
have come, demonstrate the almighty work of Jesus 
Christ in them and for them. 

18 



206 THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

Look at that Union man, walking up to the Pres- 
idential mansion, just escaped from the traitorous 
South, all emaciated by prison starvation — all scarred 
with manacle and lash. He tells the President he 
would like to enlist for the war. That's all he says. 
But the fact that he has lived through such an infa- 
mous system of corruption, and braved the perils of 
escaping, and now is ready to fight for the blessings 
he has reached — he is a glorification of the Govern- 
ment, more than a hundred Union men at the North. 

The lost sheep that has been found, is a glorifica- 
tion of the shepherd ; not in that it was lost, but that 
it has been found after being lost, and in the exult- 
ation of the shepherd with his neighbors and friends. 
So saints are the glorification of Christ. Not be- 
cause they were sinful, nor because they are holy ; 
but because they are made holy after being sinful 
and vile, and because of the exultation of Christ and 
the Angels of God, over their salvation. 

The contrast between saints and sinners, at the 
Judgment, will be sufficient, no doubt, to demon- 
strate the greatness of Christ's work in redemption, 
in the eyes of angels and all lost spirits. But to 
the saints themselves, there is a shorter way of per- 
petuating a sense of what Christ has done for them. 
It is by the contrast of sinful, mortal self with re- 
deemed and glorified self. 

And this contrast will be perpetuated, we suppose, 
by a vividness of recollection to which we are 
strangers in this life. The method of doing this for 






THE CHUKCH THE GLOKY OF CHRIST. 207 

the children of the ragged schools in England, is this: 
when a child is taken out of the streets, in his 
native filth and degradation, the first thing is, to 
adjust the lens to the ragged little vagabond, and he 
is taken just as he is, dirt, dark and rags. Then 
he is fitted up for human society and is educated. 
When he graduates, and is about to leave, this like- 
ness is given him — this original he, himself. That 
likeness contains a volume of talk to him. It per- 
petuates his gratitude and humbles his pride. Should 
this young man ever be tempted to ostentation and 
self-conceit— that he is respectable because of his 
high rank and lineage — that he inherited a part of 
his amiableness and imbibed the rest by instinct, 
there is a short way of taking the big self out of 
him. Just ask him for his native self-picture — back 
where he was imbibing amiableness, for instance, and 
you will see him shrink down to becoming dimen- 
sions. 

Now, what this likeness is to this young man, in 
some respects, will be our clear and strong recol- 
lections of what we once were. On this recollection 
rests, in part, the perpetuity of our gratitude, and 
higher strains of heaven. 

It will be " unto Him who hath washed us in His 
own blood." The recollection of what we were 
when Christ took us in, all unheavenly, all vile and 
wicked, shall go with us forever. This old picture 
shall not only serve to heighten our happiness, but 
also to increase the revenue of Christ's glory. 



208 THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

These illustrations are designed to indicate, some- 
what, the amount of the glorification of Christ in 
His saints, by the contrast between glorified saints 
with their former unsaved and unholy state. 

That which was glorious in itself must be glorified 
by being represented by others. In this case, at 
least the degree of glorification will be affected by 
the power of representation. Angels are not the 
representatives of Christ, in any particular sense, 
while saints are in every important particular. Christ 
has a two-fold nature, human and Divine. So have 
saints, — they are made partakers of the Divine nature. 

They represent Him in His earthly experience. 

They represent Him, also, in His immortalized 
mortality. Saints are so many walking, talking 
images of the Grand Original, who needs only to 
appear to glorify their example. 

2. The manifestation of this glory is reserved to 
the second coming of Christ. 

Not only the curiosity, but the inventive genius 
of man has been brought into requisition for the 
purpose of ushering in this event very speedily. 

Think not, because great changes have taken place, 
that the last great change is near at hand. Great 
as have been the events which have preceded us, 
they will probably not compare with those which 
are to follow. We admit in our thoughts — in our 
retrospect of the past, and in our faith, that great 
event of the drowning of the world by water. It 
was truly a wonderful event, — beyond the powers of 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 209 

the imagination. When the fountains of the great 
deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven 
were opened, and God poised his deep and broad 
waterspouts at this fated globe, in that mighty foam 
and roar, and dash and swell, of forty days and 
forty nights, pouring one unbroken surge from the 
heights above and the depths below ; and all around 
the broad, belted horizon the mad Niagaras were 
let loose, till the frantic earth went down — went 
down out of sight ! And there God held this globe 
in its crushing, wrenching tumult, fifteen cubits out 
of sight — He held it, reeling, rolling, struggling, 
strangling, till its heart grew cold and its pulse stood 
still ! But that was not when He shall come. 

Great as our ideas may be of God from this exhi- 
bition of His power, they will need expand greatly 
to admit that first and greater manifestation of Om- 
nific power and Infinite wisdom in the creation of 
things, creatures, worlds and systems out of nothing 
— out of nothing! 

The stupendous worlds created, constitute but 
half the wonder. The mystery all mysterious, the 
wonder all wonderful, might almighty, appears in 
that first great negative — out of nothing. 

O, what a word was that ! How almighty the 
fiat which first addressed deep chaotic night, saying 
"Let the dry land appear," and it was so> — "Let 
the worlds arise," and they came forth. 

Says one, "What majestic power was that walk- 
ing through the vast solitudes of space, ordaining a 



210 THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

path for the sun, — striking the orbits of planets, — 
marshaling on the retinue of stars, — adjusting the 
cog-work of worlds, and starting off the grand pro- 
cession in broad, unbroken phalanx around this dark 
abode of man ?" 

I have merely stepped back in this view for the 
purpose of finding something by which to measure 
the future. 

Great as the events are which have preceded us 
they are not to be compared with those which are 
coming on, — yes, coming on abreast as it were. For 
we are not midway in the stupendous programme 
of Him who was and is, and is to come. Yes, He 
who spake at first the worlds from naught is coming 
to be glorified in His saints ! And when He does 
come it will not be after the fashion of eighteen 
hundred years ago. He will not come the old 
Bethlehem route, by the way of the manger and the 
stable. 

Neither let us be deceived with the error that His 
coming is near, because the world is getting under 
so great momentum, — because the events are thick- 
ening and augmenting. For, it is possible that the 
-to come 11 will increase, — that the panorama of 
God's stupendous purposes will become more and 
more exciting, — flashing and flaming more and more 
to the final crisis of the coming of Jesus Christ 
from heaven in mighty power. 

The mistake of Millerism is found in the narrow- 
ness of its views, — in its contracted ideas of the 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 211 

wondrous system of redemption. Great expecta- 
tions are excited in heaven ! Yes, the highest 
strains of that world are reserved for the triumphs 
of Jesus Christ, greater than eye hath seen or ear 
heard. Great fears are waked in hell. And the 
church on earth is strengthening her stakes and 
lengthening her cords, with great hopes of the rising 
spreading glory of Messiah's day. To close up 
now at twilight degree, as it were, would send a 
shock of disappointment through the universe, send- 
ing the high hallelujas of the glorified down to a 
cadence lower than heaven ever knew. 

Nay, brethren ! The outlines of the glorious 
system are not filled out yet ! Too much blank ter- 
ritory on the chart of God's gracious purposes — too 
much vacancy in the crown of the Messiah ; which 
is to be adorned with stars from the hazy regions ! 
The heathen are yet to come in as the inheritance of 
Christ, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His 
possession, — the outposts of the kingdom of anti- 
Christ are to surrender to the all-conquering God, 
and every refuge of lies and citadel of iniquity, 
with the hoary systems of false religions, are to feel 
the power of New Testament truth, and the wilder- 
ness shall bud and blossom as the rose. 

But before that grand sabbatic year, the jubilee 
of earth shall be ushered in, long processes are to be 
gone through. Broad commotions and revolutions 
are to take place. For this is no tame, conservative, 
luke-warm sort of world. Nay, this is not only a 



212 THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

great battlefield, but this is the only warring place 
of the universe. The antagonisms of all worlds are 
here. Yes, here, on this arena of intermittent dark 
and light, the moral elements of Christ's kingdom, 
are to battle a final triumph for God and humanity. 
The great Captain of our salvation, with sword and 
buckler on, is going forth to the conquest of the 
world to His sceptre and His throne. 

The wonderful struggle of this one day is a col- 
lision of moral elements. But for the high tone of 
moral sentiment at the North, this rebellion had not 
been. This sentiment embodied itself as a great 
breakwater to the turbid tide of aggressive bar- 
barism, saying thus far shalt thou come, but no 
farther. 

That edict, no farther, was the goad that excited 
the rebellion. But a system which had pampered 
the lust and laziness of generations, was not to be 
curtailed by the " no further" word of Yankees. 
No, that system of iniquitised, dark barbarism, 
hoary headed in cruelty, with stamp of foot said, 
"I'll plant my scepter in all the territories of the 
Union, and call my slave roll on Bunker Hill, or I'll 
rend the Nation and prostrate this fair Republic.''' 
But the humanity and civilization of the North, 
in high and holy purpose, calmly repeated " no 
further !" 

The extent of this struggle furnishes the fathom- 
gauge of the depth and strength of moral sentiment 
— the power of right and wrong, in conflict. Great 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 213 

as this conflict is, it will probably not prove the last 
in the wondrous drama of the world. Satan, that 
arch-leader of hell, is to be bound a thousand years. 
And we are not to suppose that he will consent to 
this curtailment of his power without some terrible 
thrusts at the Kingdom of Christ. 

But, curiosity asks, " when will He come ?" And 
11 what will be the si^ns of His comino; ?" "He 
shall arise to shake terribly the earth, — ' the moun- 
tains shall reel like drunken men.' " He shall gather 
His elect from sea and land. Come with ten thou- 
sand of angels — and with the voice " Awake ye 
dead and come to judgment." 

Christ has been insulted in His saints for the long 
years of their pilgrimage. He is coming now to 
make a display of these sighing ones — to be indem- 
nified for this suffering and persecution. He is to 
take them off their knees and out of the dust — to 
assuage their griefs, wiping tears from all eyes, He 
shall bid them awake to coronation scenes, " Glori- 
fied in His saints." 

But oh! — the contrast of that scene! Here we 
mix and mingle, whether living, dying or dead ! 
But there the separation comes in, — "To the right 
and the left, ye generations vast." Then the glory 
and administration of Christ will appear in His 
saints. 

The contrast shall heighten the glory on one hand 
and deepen the wo on the other. "A neighbor 
6aved, — -yea, a brother, while I am lost." 



214 THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 

The quaking myriads on the left, in contrast with 
the uplifted hands on the right, clapping a high and 
holy exultation over the end of sorrow, over the 
power of death and hell, shall show a difference be- 
tween sin and holiness quite unperceived by mortals 
here. 

For, in estimating the glory of Christ, it is not 
enough to count the series upward, — upward from 
glory to glory ! Though we might go up the grand 
climax of progression up to where arithmetic fails, 
and calculation stands dumb, at only midway of the 
series ! But we are also to fathom the depths below, 
— down — doivn into the deep night of despair where 
our candle goes out, and put our ear close down to 
the fainting, failing pulse of hope as the last throb 
ebbs out ; and lay our hand on torment when the 
eternal pang sets in, — and take hold of that gigan- 
tic ague — the delirium tremens of hell, and hold, if 
thou canst, till eyes roll toward thee and gnashing 
teeth begin. 

Here, in these deep, dark depths of bottomless 
hell, set your gauge and run it upward, — upward 
run the wondrous count toward the twilight of pro- 
bation, crossing time at its narrowest point, strike 
into the series of glorification and rise ! — from glory 
to glory, rise ! ! — let out your chain-links and rise ! ! ! 
Go up the grand progression till counts run out — 
till measures fail, and reckoning stands baffled before 
the great white throne, where angels bow and thrice 
holy cry ! 



THE CHURCH THE GLORY OF CHRIST. 215 

Now tell us, O man, or angel, whoever thou art, 
who has undertaken the algebra of depths and 
heights, — tell us, if thou canst speak at all — tell us 
how great man's salvation and Messiah's glory ! 
For, recollect, brethren, salvation means not only 
to eternal life, but also from eternal death ! Yes ! 
— from the nether hell, that lone land of deep des- 
pair, all along up — up to the general assembly 
and church of the first born ! Up to the beatific 
throne, the counts all wondrous run to the glory of 
Jesus Christ ! ! 



BONE WITNESSES.* 

Psalms xiv, 7. — u Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as 
when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth." 

Two great bone monuments are now being raised 
on this Continent. One as the result of the propa- 
gation of barbarism and oppression, the other in 
behalf of civilization and the rights of humanity. 
These two systems have come into collision, hence 
the bones. 

Your son has fallen in a cause related not only to 
the rights of man, but also to the rights of God — 
to the march of truth, and the oncoming Millennial 
glory of earth. The mighty moral progressions 
demand the overthrow of slavery, and it surely shall 
give way before this irrepressible conflict. 

Let these parents count themselves honored, then, 
in that they have contributed so great a gift in the 
defense of all that's dear to an American, and the 
subjugation of the blackest power that ever held 
dominion out of hell. A power which with but few 
exceptions, had bound pulpit and press through the 
length and breadth of America, stifling oppressed 
conscience every where. 

•Extract from a sermon, with added thoughts, preached at the 
funeral of a soldier, a young man of promise, in the early part of 
the war. 



BONE WITNESSES. 217 

Slavery stands in the way of the infallible pro- 
cesses ! Slavery prevents the break of clay — holding 
noon in its endless night ! 

Infinite God can hardly afford to postpone the 
programme of the Universe — going into armistice 
with truth's high and holy warfare for the accommo- 
dation of the lust and laziness of slave-holders. 

The signs of slavery are ominous — this infamous 
system may be tracked everywhere by strewed bones, 
trailing blood and flowing tears ! 

Draw the ocean down to huge nakedness — make 
bare the stately wrecks and silent bones. Then take 
your stand on the wailing shores of Africa, and look 
out upon that bone trail — the greatest trail of all, 
revealed by ocean's emptiness ! Mark its windings 
and pointings, how true it holds to the American 
track. There it lies stretched out like great serpent. 
Mark its increase — increase till it stops with high 
pilings at a southern port. 

These silent bones, as sleeping thunders, are re- 
served for Judgment Day ! — God's rebutting testi- 
mony on humanity's appeal before the Supreme 
Court of the Universe ! Oh, ye slave tormentors, 
who count it a sharp practice to hang ministers, who 
dare speak God's truth — men so spotless and true 
that neither fashion nor bribery can tempt into your 
iniquity. 

You may call it a cheap method of stilling the 
voice of humanity and justice against you, by strik- 



19 



218 BONE WITNESSES. 

ing dead the faithful witnesses, flattering yourselves 
that your trouble is over, when murder has hushed 
the faithful tongues against your crimes. 

Oh, ye haters of light — of truth and righteous- 
ness ; yea, of civilization — of school houses and 
spelling books, even. 

Take warning, whether dead or alive, take warn- 
ing ! that your great trouble is yet to come from 
bones ! 

These are God's reserved witnesses, whose coming 
awful clamor, like storm of fire, shall chase you 
down to night ! 

You fain would call it all over, when you take 
your suffocated victims by the hundred from the 
dark caverns of the ship and plunge them into the 
sea — flattering yourselves that the briny deep shall 
hide this demon game on humanity. But look out 
for trembling — for great eternal ague ! when God 
wakes His bone witnesses — when resurrection power 
shall rake the mighty deep clean of murdered hu- 
manity, where sleeps half thy hell to-day ! Look 
out for trouble when you are made to reckon with 
resurrection bones, for they will come ! yes, they 
will come, with tongues of truth and awful empha- 
sis, to confound thy pleadings and apologies, and 
consternate the corrupt ministers who could preach 
thee clean of blood and greed and lust, quite to 
holy heaven. 

Who, with generous funeral fee in pocket safe, 



BONE WITNESSES. 219 

fain hoped he had pleased confederates in crime, 
when, in saintly tone, he prayed a child of Satan 
up to Paradise ! as if he could play his game on 
Omniscient God, and forestall the coming talk of 
bones ! 

Let no one call this exaggeration, for it's tame 
when compared to the full import of truth and fact, 
and perhaps will stand a reproach on my moral 
perceptions and sensibilities, that I could come 
no nearer the terrible reality in this description. 
Neither impute this plain talk to hate or malice, 
for it comes rather from love of humanity and 
humanity's rights. Though law and order would 
require that at least the leaders in this murderous 
mob should be executed, yet it would be no gratifi- 
cation to myself or my neighbors to see one rebel 
put to death. No, not even that bloody Davis — that 
dart-born of Satan, whose meat and drink — whose 
dainty fare of highest relish was found in the starva- 
tion of Union soldiers — holding richest banquet at 
Andersonville. 

What a marvel that this ringleader in starvation 
torture lives. Let him thank the civilization and 
religion of the North, that such as he are permitted 
to sleep under the same stars with decent people. 

But for humanity's high birth with the relatives 
of starved ones, a thousand guns would have held 
deadly aim on that bloody target of incensed justice 
before to-day. No, let no one avenge his wrongs 



220 BONE WITNESSES. 

on beings so obnoxious to eternal justice ! God's 
retributions will suffice, and they are sure, beyond 
plotting or bailing. 

But every principle of right and justice demands 
that traitors should be deprived of civil power every- 
where and forever ! And anything short of this is 
monstrous trifling with tears and blood ! 



ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

Acts vii, 51. — " Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." 

My text occurs in that eloquent and pointed ser- 
mon of the holy Stephen, delivered at Jerusalem 
before a council of the great ones of the times. 
Members of different synagogues, with their priests ; 
and those from Cilicia and Asia, making quite an 
imposing court, we should say ; — all high officers of 
the church — of the national church, but in reality 
the grand Sanhedrim of anti-Christ ! — an assembly 
of the whitecl sepulchres of Christ's day, whose 
self-righteousness and hypocrisy but poorly pre- 
pared them to brook the assertions of Stephen 
against themselves. 

A certain commentator on this sermon says, 
" while Stephen dwelt on things generally, the 
people sat quiet and still, but when he came to the 
application, the stir commenced." 

It is said " they gnashed on him with their teeth." 
This is being terribly mad — a response to preaching 
rather strange we should say ! But they had one of 
the Lord's servants to deal with, whose business it 
was to declare the whole counsel of God. 

But when he asserted the resurrection as he 
looked steadfastly up into heaven, — with gnashing 
teeth all around him, — saying, "I see the Son of 



222 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

Man standing on the right hand of God," this was 
too much. For a man who would not scare at 
gnashing teeth to preach the resurrection — and 
especially of that Gallilean whom they had cleared 
the world of once — for him to have the impudence 
to preach like this, especially when they gnashed 
so hard, — they would not a^way with it, so they 
stopped their ears and ran upon him and took him 
by force, and stoned him. "And they stoned 
Stephen, calling upon God and saying, ' Lord Jesus 
receive my spirit !' " So he preached the resurrec- 
tion in dying — also calling Jesus, God. 

My text contains a serious charge. A charge first 
brought against the Jews by the Spirit, through His 
servant Stephen. And possibly it may find an 
application in this, our day, to a greater degree 
than we may suppose. 

In the consideration of this solemn subject, I shall 
call your attention briefly to the consideration — 

I. Of the personality of the Holy Ghost, in con- 
nection with His relation to the salvation of man. 

That the Holy Ghost is a person, that He is Gocl, 
instead of an influence from God, may be proved 
from various passages of the holy scriptures. 

1. That the Holy Ghost is God and one with the 
Father and the Son, may be proved from the for- 
mula of baptism given by Christ, — "Teach all 
nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 

2. From the Apostolic benediction, — " The grace 



ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 223 

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the 
Father, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be 
with you all." 

3. From Peter, — " Holy men of old #pake as 
they were moved by the Holy Ghost ;" and yet, the 
word of God declares that " all scripture is given 
by inspiration of God." So that the Holy Ghost 
and the inspiration of God are considered one in 
this respect at least. 

The relation of the Holy Ghost to the salvation 
of the world may be discovered in part by a refer- 
ence to the original meaning of the term from which 
we have Ghost. The learned say it is from Gust. 
Then it is Holy Gust; and it should be borne in 
mind that this title is expressive of the office work 
of the third person in the Godhead. He is the out- 
going or procession from the Father and the Son. 

His action on the world may fitly be compared to 
the invisible movement of the atmosphere. The 
gushing out of light, or, the gusting forth of the 
wind. Hence, it is said, 

1. " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
the waters." 

2. Again, Christ "breathed on them and said, 
receive ye the Holy Ghost," (Holy Gust). Here 
Christ assumed the office of the Holy Ghost, — mark, 
" He breathed on them." 

3 . Then on the clay of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost 
(Gust) came upon them like a rushing mighty wind, 
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. 



224 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

4. Then we have another phrase expressive of the 
same work, viz.: Inspiration. It has reference to 
breathing — taking in — infusion — impartation. It is 
God entering the soul, — breathing life into the dead. 

The office work of the Holy Spirit when abbre- 
viated, is that Divine Agent acting on the soul of 
man with a view of saving him. 

For the accomplishment of this work He takes 
the things of the Father and of the Son, such as 
creation, providence, the atonement, the word of 
God, the experience of christians, &c, as instruments 
in His hands by which He works. 

Perhaps it may be proper to say that the Holy 
Ghost is that saving application of things outer to 
the inner man. And, but for this peculiar work of 
the Spirit, the works and wonders of the Father and 
Son would be reduced to the impertinence of a 
sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal on the soul of 
man, destitute of power or importance. The Holy 
Ghost is the expositor of the Father and of the Son 
in man. 

II. Perhaps we are now prepared for the second 
proposition, which is to show 

Wherein the sinners of this day are guilty of the 
charge in the text. 

It may be proper here to remark that the Holy 
Ghost is the only Person in the Trinity which man 
is capable of resisting, to any extent, under the Gos- 
pel dispensation. God created and upholds the 
world irrespective of individual man. He makes 



ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 225 

His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, irre- 
spective of moral character. The Son made atone- 
ment without reference to the conduct of men. 

But when we come to the Holy Ghost, — His work 
in soul saving is eminently under the lets and hin- 
drances of individual man. If there is resistance at 
all, it must be where the Holy Spirit works, of 
course. Now if we can fix the location of these 
spiritual movements, so as to determine where the 
Spirit is making His efforts, we can know where to 
look for the resistance. 

The first work of the Holy Spirit is to enlighten. 
John xiv, 26 : " But the Comforter, which is the 
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
He shall teach you all things and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you." Luke xii, 12: "For the Holy Ghost shall 
teach you in the self same hour what ye ought to 
say." 1st Cor. ii, 13 : " Which things also we speak, 
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual 
things with spiritual." Mark this comparing ! 

The Holy Ghost treats man as he is ; if He reaches 
his heart it will be through his intellect — his per- 
ceptive and reasoning faculties. Here is enlightening 
by bringing before the mind what Christ has said, 
and how mysteriously it is done ! Here we may 
trace out that operation of the Spirit compared to 
Gust — like a flash of light. Some truth falls on the 
mind with an unnatural force, or some past event or 



226 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

occurrence suddenly stands up before us with start- 
ling vividness and power to convince. 

Now comes on the resistance to the Spirit. It is 
seen in an effort to give that truth another meaning, 
or to drive it out of the mind by beckoning in other 
thoughts. Here is the commencement of the fight. 
The Holy Ghost is in close argument with the sinner, 
pressing him with a kind of reasoning that bailies 
him ; then moves a minister or Christian just at the 
right time, to the right thoughts, &c. 

Another work of the Holy Spirit is to reprove. 

"When He (the Comforter) is come, He shall re- 
prove the world of sin, of righteousness and judgment 
to come." 

Here we may look for greater resistance to the 
Spirit than is found in the act of convincing and 
enlightening. As our religious views are generally 
received, especially in this day of light, before de- 
pravity has assumed that hostile attitude to God 
which often appears in after life. 

Again, in } T outh we are ignorant of the use which 
the Holy Ghost designs to make of these lessons of 
instruction. Hence, the Sunday school child learns his 
verses and imbibes the common sense view of the 
word of God ; honestly treasuring up the great 
principles of Christianity, not suspecting that the 
Holy Ghost is at work here. So the child will kneel 
in prayer, weep when father prays, and when mother 
reproves. While all this is going on, depravity 
seems ignorant of the fact that with all this the Holy 



ON KESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 227 

Ghost is storing his armory for the conquest of 
his heart. But when the Spirit makes an attack on 
the depraved heart — when He reproves for sin, and 
presses the individual with that great dark fact, that 
he is a sinner, and that he must be born again or be 
lost in hell, and that soul obstinately refuses to obey 
God — to act up to the light and convictions of his 
conscience ; you will witness resistance to the Spirit 
which almost baffles description. For it is a task 
of no ordinary character, in these clays of light, for 
one to clear himself, effectually, from the gracious 
efforts of the Spirit to save him. It involves a war 
with the will of God — with the decrees of God, the 
providence of God and the word of God. 

It is no small affair to put out all the intellectual 
lights which God has been hanging up in that mind 
from infancy. It is not the work of a day to unknow 
what one knows — to unfeel what we have felt — to 
undo yourself back to infancy. 

Am I speaking to a skeptical person ? One who 
disbelieves the religion of Christ ? 0, brother man, 
stop and let me talk to you. Be patient with me 
w T hile I speak some close truth. I wish to help you. 
I give thee warning, O, thou privileged one, that it 
is no light task to heathenize a religiousty educated 
mind ! Darken all the windows of thy soul ; forbid 
thyself to enter the sanctuary, except, perhaps, to 
save a reputation ; proscribe thine ears to gospel 
message ; neglect the bible, except to pick flaws with 
the revelations of heaven ; — if thou wilt, go further 



228 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

still, and refuse to hear Christians talk, or pray, or 
even sing. Is the tumult over now ? Does the 
raging sea subside at this ? Dear man, not half thy 
trouble comes from meeting houses ! It's nearer 
home than churches ? Ligld is in thee, and it is not 
in thy power to put it out ! The Holy Ghost has 
spoken heavy words into thy soul deep, and mirth 
and revelry are not carnal enough, and time is not- 
long enough to unspeak the God words out of thee ! 

The Spirit's .work in thee may be quenched or 
smothered, even to thy latest hour, but jt is only to 
increase the breaking forth at last. 

God gets the advantage of ignorance and depravity 
both — in childhood, and the Spirit can convict you 
through yourself. He can set one faculty warring 
against another, turning the sinner's soul into a 
smoking battle-field, arraying thy memory against 
thy sophistry. He can excite thy recollection, and 
lo, past experiences of innocence, and guilt contrasted, 
of soul trouble and conscience remorse, come troop- 
ing in from the past, with maledictions on promises 
broken ; — they come ! yes, they come in awful armor 
to baffle thy skeptical reasoning ! Here, O man, is 
one of thy troubles in sin. Thy former self is the 
great contradiction of the present man ! 

I am speaking now, not to grown up heathens, 
but to the refined and educated, who have come up 
by way of the Sabbath-school, and are now skeptical 
after all. I say to such, the Holy Spirit wields 
your former self against your present self ; speaking 



OX RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 229 

as from distant days, back before that infidel senti- 
ment entered thy heart. 

Those long struggles against truth and God, yea, 
against an innocent conscience, through which you 
have worried in reaching your skeptical fortress, are 
on you to-day. You can be tracked to your present 
refuge of skepticism and carnal security, by the 
blood of your conscience ; for you have wounded 
yourself, and gone into your fortress trailing blood 
to the very door. 

There's blood on the threshold, blood on the panel ! 

And on the floor ! 
Blood that baffles wear and washing — red 

Forevermore ! 

And will a skeptic represent himself innocent in 
his disbelief of the new birth, and of future punish- 
ment, when the marks of these truths are so visible ? 
I almost see the foam of this desperate struggle 
against the Spirit on thy horrid armor now. O. 
that the Spirit could draw thee from thy coat of 
mail, and show thee thy wounds — wounds that never 
heal! 

Not only does the Spirit reprove through the 
recollection of past sins and guilt and condemnation, 
but He uses past innocence also. God gave thee a 
hopeful setting out, in thy childhood state, for the 
great manhood work of thy life. At great cost of 
Calvary suffering and ignominy, God has given us 
the greatest bankrupt law ever known, by which He 
exonerates us from all the claims of justice lying 
20 



230 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

against our natural depravity ; cancelling all the 
past and squaring the books up to sins committed, 
so that no one shall suffer from necessity for his 
natural depravity. 

By this unconditional atonement for original sin, 
every human being commences life innocent and 
imputed pure. Not that his nature is holy, but he 
is not held amenable for hereditary depravity. Now, 
my skeptical friend, go with me back to thy child- 
hood state — to thy spotless, innocent self, when thy 
little heart was tender, and thy tearful eye bespoke 
penitence for the first : when you stood alone and 
thought religiously of God and heaven ; then knelt 
at your little bed and put your hands together and 
prayed 

" Now I lay me down to sleep." 

Now, my friend, what have you to answer for the 
loss of this innocence and tenderness, this holy be- 
lieving and sincere praying ? Ah, man ! — there's 
guilt on thee! Thou art responsible for the loss of that 
tenderness and sincerity ! Thy childhood will fol- 
low thee ! That murdered innocence will haunt thy 
manhood forever, if lost ! That little prayer, along 
with that meek kneeling and child-like sincerity, 
belong with God's witnesses against the man. 

You fear the holy Judge of all the earth, and 
well you may, and all others, also ; but did you 
ever apprehend trouble from yourself? Dear man, 
thy childhood will torment thee eternally ! 

This, though fearful, is not the only instance of 



ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 231 

contradiction which the Holy Spirit can awaken 
within us. 

He can array our conscience against our passions 
— arm our fears against our will — set self convicting 
self — self tormenting self! What a magazine of 
wrath is an ungodly human soul against itself, when 
let loose upon itself. Internal hissings and back 
thrusts and bitings on itself. 

A very striking illustration of the power of recol- 
lected childhood innocence occurred in W. at the 
time of a great revival, the greatest of my ministry. 
In the place resided Mr. C, an aged infidel, a man 
of talent and extensive reading, but a hater of 
religion. For years this man had been lecturing 
to classes of young men in the neighboring cities 
and villages on his Deistic views, leading souls to 
ruin by the hundred. At last, to the surprise of 
neighbors, he appeared in the church. Night after 
night, with anxious look, he appeared, coming every 
night nearer the pulpit. Finally, as penitents were 
knelt at the altar, (for no one, in that revival, were 
converted who did not pray audibly, and sometimes 
one hundred penitents were in audible prayer at the 
same time,) Mr. C, at length, in the interval of 
prayer, spoke. These are the very words he uttered: 

11 1 can stand that man's preaching ; I have argu- 
ments to meet him ; but I can't stand these bo}*s." 
Here he wept visibly, and, in a broken way, con- 
tinued to say, " When I was a boy, I prayed like 
these, and felt as they do : but now — " Here, he 



232 ON RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST. 

stopped short, with a sensation through the house 
which may be imagined, for no one knew of his early 
history, and no one suspected that he ever had 
prayed. Let us not lose the great fact in this case 
— it is this : — that childhood innocence, with a vivid- 
ness of recollection, comes through the long years 
in God's own armor, for the conquest of the gray- 
haired man. For sixty years he had carried the 
Spirit's marks on him, with all his contending — toil- 
ing — swearing — hating, sinning and reviling of re- 
ligion, and treading down of the Son of God, he had 
failed to take the demonstrations of truth out of his 
soul. God's deep voice in him could not be un- 
spoken ; and now, though for three score years this 
voice had been sleeping, to appearance, yet here it 
comes forth with a terribleness of accent which 
shakes the old man, soul and body. He could stand 
ministers and bibles, he could weather the long 
years of judgments and mercies, of patience and 
providence ; but suddenly, when he is made to con- 
front his boyhood experience of truth and God, he 
quails before its power. He knew all along that 
religion was true. 

O, the solicitude, the sympathy and prayers for 
the poor man's salvation as week after week he ap- 
peared as a penitent ! But he said he had resisted 
so long and reasoned so much against religion, that 
he could not believe. He died in darkness at last ! 



MISSIONARY SPEECH.* 

We are not here this evening, brethren and 
friends, for the purpose of originating new expe- 
dients, or of rearranging old systems ; but for the 
purpose of receiving a fresh impulse in a great 
enterprise ; — an enterprise the most benevolent and 
sublime of all others within the range of human 
agency ; — an enterprise which proposes the chris- 
tianization of the heathen world. 

This is the popular theme, — yes, this is the thrill* 
ing theme with the church of Christ, and the leading 
idea in the kingdom of grace. 

1. Enquire first what Christianity is. 

Christianity is the desideratum of human happi- 
ness, — that great prerequisite to full and proper 
existence, — that which carries existence clear of 
curse in both worlds, — the soul's only safe guarantee 
against the calamities of time, and the doom of 
eternity. Christianity is the harmony of earth and 
heaven, — the deep music of the soul which angels 
throng to hear. It is the star of hope, — yea, the 
unsetting sun in skies terrestrial, — a light ordained 
for a dark place. 

" The glory of our brightest days. 
And comfort of our nights." 

•Delivered at a general Missionary meeting at Plattsburgh, and 
also at Clintonville, N. Y. 



234 MISSIONARY SPEECH. 

The heathen are suffering and dying for the want 
of it. 

Christianity is the May of December, — the noon 
of night, — the rose of every thorn, — the laugh of 
every sigh ! It is joy in sorrow, life in death, the 
heaven of earth, — the Christian's to-day comfort and 
his morrow hope. Christianity is light on the tomb, 
— -the smile on corpse godly, — a smile that outlives 
the pangs of dying, and when the last farewell is 
given, and coffined death is lowered to its long rest 
amid the hollow sounds of falling sods and sighing 
hearts, Christianity echoes back, "We shall meet 
again, — yes, meet again the other side of resurrec- 
tion, meet 

' In yon blissful regions, the Eden of love.' " 

The heathen are going to the grave hopeless and 
sad, destitute of the light of life ! It appertains to 
our mission to cheer their lonely march to the tomb, 
— to put holy music into that solemn tread ! It 's 
for us instrumentally to light up the charnel house 
of heathendom, — to tell them of resurrection life, 
of immortality beyond the tomb ! Will we do it ? 

Oh ! what is man, destitute of religion, but a 
curse to himself, — a walking pang, — a breathing 
death, — groping in darkness at the noon of day, 
dying while he lives ! He exists — he must eternally 
exist, and yet deep sorrows are located in him ! 
He is a leaf on the green bay tree of existence 
blighted ! A word from wisdom's own mouth which 
never can be unspoken, yet fearfully misaccented ! 



MISSIONARY SPEECH. 235 

A calamity that he were born ; for he is ruined, — 
he is perverted, soul, body and existence are per- 
verted ! He has disfranchised himself from life, — 
from life eternal, — from God, — from heaven ! What 
will he do ? He is a star gone into eternal eclipse. 
He's a bark on the sea of existence destitute of 
compass or rudder, and yet drifting, — drifting 
toward the dark breakers amid the wrecks of gene- 
rations and ages ! Must he drive on ? Is there no 
help in heaven or on earth for him ? Yes, in Chris- 
tianity there is help ! There rises the great head- 
land of hope ! There beams a light out on the 
gloom of despair ! Salvation is for the lost ! 

2. Second : Christianity is adequate to the world's 
depravity and the world's wants. This system is 
unlike all others in this, that it is not in the condi- 
tion of dependence on foreign helps, occupying the 
middle ground of a series of means, taking its work 
in a state of good beginning and carrying it on to 
be consummated by another system above itself, in 
which case it must wait, and look and long until 
some power out of itself should condescend to bring 
the world up within its reach. Notwithstanding the 
dark fathoms of the world's sunken degradation and 
ruin, the arm of saving power can reach these 
depths, taking trophies from the gates of hell — 
plucking brands from burnings. Christ is equal to 
the first and the last of the world's redemption, 
asking no forerunner to prepare His way, — no 
pioneering of worldly wisdom or human policy. 



236 MISSIONARY SPEECH. 

Vain are all such attempts! "It's not philosophy 
or morality even that can smooth the rough shag 
of human nature, and transform apostate man from 
fool to wise." It 's been tried over and over 
again, especially among the Indians. Philanthro- 
pists went among them with tools and clothes and 
spelling books, with a view of bringing them up 
where the gospel could reach them, and what was 
the result ? They were scalped and sent home, 
— if, indeed, they lived to get home. But John 
Stewart, moved by the Holy Ghost to go northwest, 
and he went out not knowing whither he went, until 
he came among the savages of America, and there 
amid bloody tomahawks and gleaming scalping 
knives, he opened his mission, proclaiming the gos- 
pel of the Son of God. The war-whoop died down 
to silence, barbarism stood confounded before the 
wondrous story. 

Christianity proposes to take the world just as it 
is, lying in the wicked one in distant alienation from 
God, all wretched and ruined, savage and ugly, tak- 
ing humanity even without natural affection, degrees 
below the brutes, carrying the obedient all along 
through the refining, transforming degrees up to 
holiness, to glorification, to immortality and eternal 
life, keyed to the symphony of heaven. 

Are the elements on which holy truth is to act 
lying in the darkness of nature's night ? Be it so. 
The lamps have long been lit for chaos explorations: 
here comes a light which darkness cannot cowr*™ 



MISSION AEY SPEECH. 237 

hend, a light carrying day into chaos and moonless 
night. 

Are the stones for the upper Jerusalem temple yet 
unquarried ? Be it so. The fires are kindled and the 
hammers lifted up, made and tempered for just such 
adamant. Rude and rough as these stones are, 
Christ's redeeming system can shape and polish them 
and God will bring His jaspers, sapphires and emer- 
alds from the wild quarry-lands of heathendom. 
Yes, He will garnish His home temple with pearls 
brought from dark waters. 

But man is dead in trespasses and sins, and human 
reason asks, "How can the dead live ?" The Holy 
Ghost is hovering over the world's Golgotha to-clay, 
breathing the second time and saving live, and lo ! 
the dead are sitting up through all the region and 
shadow of death, restored to first image. 

Yes, Christianity is equal to the world in its wreck 
and ruin, in its ugliness and barbarism. Taking the 
Hindoo swinging on his hooks, throwing blood at 
every sweep ; the Arab in his tent, cruel and mad ; 
the followers of Mahomet on their painful pilgrim- 
age ; the Caffre and Hottentot in their nakedness ; 
the cannibal at his horrid banquet ; the Indian in 
his paint and feathers, all wild and whooping, with 
bloody scalps for the prize, full of carnage and 
cruelty. 

This is the brute beast nature, the man hyena, 
the wilderness wildness, that's to be caught, though 
lassoed on the bound. These are the elements for 



238 MISSIONARY SPEECH. 

Christianity to tame and refine, to wash and robe 
for the skies, fitted for the society of angels. 

This all-conquering and redeeming power is more 
than equal to individuals and tribes ; it even talks 
of a nation being born to God in a day. The 
intimation is already out that France with its no 
God and illegitimacy is yet to become a colony of 
Heaven. A sun is now rising for Africa's benighted 
land, and England, bloated with pride and religious 
aristocracy, is yet to kneel in sackcloth to Jesus 
Christ. China, drunk with opium, is to be erected 
into a tribe of Israel. And America, black and 
bloody with slavery, is to be washed in the pool of 
David's house until southern amalgamation shall 
unmix. 

Thank God, the strongholds of sin and death are 
giving way already. Go back a few years to the 
scenes transpiring on the day of infant sacrifice ; wit- 
ness the horrid rites about the devil's bush, where 
mothers bring their children to be slaughtered before 
their eyes ; see the child cling to its mother, hear 
its piteous wail of " gonanah ! gonanah !" which 
means mother ! mother ! Where is it now ? The 
husbandry of Christianity has ploughed up those 
mounds of blood, the old slaughter tables have been 
demolished, tables stained with the blood of gener- 
ations have gone deep into the St. Paul's river, with 
a shout of triumph to God. 

Let us pass over where stood a heathen meat 
market, let us walk through the long tiers of babes 



MISSIONARY SPEECH. 239 

and fathers, with heads downwards, hanging on 
hooks, butchered but yesterday, all fattened on 
snakes and toads. Hear the meat-man cry so much 
a pound for four-year-old children ! How is it now ? 

Christianity has shut those markets with emphasis, 
never to be opened again. The snake swamps and 
frog ponds are becoming worthless. Yes. sir ! snakes 
and toads are on the decline in the markets of 
heathendom ; now, they hold love-feasts in sight of 
the old slaughter-houses. Such is the testimony of a 
returned missionary, who spent years in that country. 

Go to Niger's dubious billows ; go to the horrid 
Ganges and witness the inhuman rite, the practice 
of ages, of children strangling their aged parents 
by forcing filth and mud clown their throats ; then 
rolling them into the water, or leave them for the 
fowls to pick their carcasses. 

Rake these rivers clean of humanity — disengulph 
these bones, — the bones of generations ; pile them 
high on either bank. Great monument of heathenism ! 
Now ask yourself, ask human wisdom, ask philoso- 
phy, what can put an end to these inhuman cruelties ? 
No response is heard. Then ask heathen converts 
to Christianity, who are praying over their sick 
parents at home. Yes, go to prayer-meeting and 
love-feast, if you would learn the philosophy of 
heathen cure. Then, if you would see the cure rat- 
ified, ask aged parents how their children treat them ; 
then go to their school-houses, their husbandry, their 
domestic circles. 



240 MISSIONARY SPEECH. 

The North shall give up, while the South shall 
not keep back, for God is now bringing His sons 
from afar and His daughters from the ends of the 
earth. Heathen nations are going over to Christ as 
His inheritance, and Africa may yet become the 
Jacob lot of that inheritance, for Christianity has 
taken hold of that Continent full of hope, lighting 
her lamps and erecting her altars through all that 
midnight of heathenism. Yes, Africa, to quote an- 
other, that ancient seat of learning, where the alpha- 
bet was invented ; where Moses, that hot-headed 
Abolitionist, was born ; where Pharaoh lived, whom 
God drowned for the crime of slavery ; where the 
wonders were repeated, long since reduced to a 
colony of heathenism under the reign of anti-Christ. 
Her children have been stolen at the rate of one 
hundred thousand yearlj 7 for the slave trade, whose 
sufferings no pen can describe. 

"What sands of her desert have not been steeped 
in tears, wrung out by slavery's parting scenes ? 
What winds have blown there which have not wafted 
the sigh of the ruined ; yes, and wafted up to God ? 
What part of the ocean has not engulphed some 
of her despairing sons and daughters, especially on 
the line of the American track ? Yes, this dark, 
fiendish system may be tracked by bones, blood and 
tears. 

But can Christianity cope with her horrid rites 
and hoary customs ? Will not her darkness eclipse 
the light divine ? Will not her dark depravity out- 



MISSIONARY SPEECH. 241 

match the power of New Testament cure ? Let her 
Sabbath-schools and prayer-meetings answer. 

3. Christianity is equal to itself. The kingdom 
of Christ is not in the predicament of some institu- 
tions, dependent on foreign resources and distant 
periods. Not like night going in debt to-day, or 
winter living on summer. If Christianity has its 
nights and winters, they are not so dark, leafless and 
bleak but they could sustain themselves. Birds 
always sing in these bowers ; here, December's as 
pleasant as May, and summer lasts all the year. 

No week-days here, carrying their bills to the 
Sabbath to be cancelled at the sanctuary. For, 
to the real Christian, there is Sabbath hallow and 
sanctuary delights in all his days, enough, at least, 
to square the books to date, keeping Infinite God 
out of debt to man. Instead, then, of Sabbath 
being a day for cancelling old bills, a sort of pay- 
ing off in sanctuary recognition of membership for 
decent behavior through the week, as appears to be 
the religion of some, it should be regarded the 
great banking day of the kingdom, for giving out 
new capital for the work of aggression on anti-Christ 
and self. 

But this is not what I had in view in the propo- 
sition. I wish to say this, that Christianity is equal 
to its own wants, as it respects money and men, sci- 
ence, literature and inventions even. Probably 
Christianity has a greater claim on inventions than 
Yankees suspect. Are ministers and missionaries 

21 



242 MISSIONAKY SPEECH. 

wanted ? Christianity can furnish them ; furnish 
them with intelligence in their heads and holiness 
in their hearts, without being in debt to the world 
for them either. Let no one suppose that the 
kingdom of Christ is beholden to the world for 
the schooling of its agents Literature is hers, all 
the way through, from high astronomy down to 
spelling book, school houses and all. 

Some seem to think that Christianity would have 
been in its A-B Ab's to-day but for the world's school- 
ing. Wonderful ! The world would have been a 
great fool, crawling on its hands and knees to this 
day, but for the bible ; all but quarreling with bears 
for their holes, for humanity left to itself has rarely 
grown to the capacity of building a decent house. 

Yes, Christianity has outstanding debts now against 
the world for science, enterprize, intelligence, in- 
ventions and industry, if they could be realized, 
sufficient to carry Christ's kingdom up to Millennium 
da}*. Is money wanted ? Christianity has no occa- 
sion to go begging for it : pay but a tithe of the 
wealth which the world has through the Bible, and 
the bills would be met. I am not here, then, this 
evening, in the light of a beggar. No, I say, pay 
your debts, ministers and people, pa}' up ; not all 
we owe, for that would take all we have — yes, it 
would, and leave the best of us only shantied out in 
this bleak w T orld, with scarce roots and herbs enough 
to take us through to Spring. 

What is the secret of this wonder-working genius 



MISSIONARY SPEECH. 243 

which lifts man up out of besotted ignorance, taking- 
brute and night out of his nature, standing him. up 
erect, with enterprize in his brain and ambition in 
his blood. 

Just here we may make a discovery in the policy 
of slavery. Why was a woman put into prison at 
the South for teaching slave children to read in the 
spelling book? What harm can spelling books 
work to slavery ? A knowledge of spelling books 
means something more ; it means newspapers and 
Bibles, and these give the slave too much knowledge 
for the master's oppression. Tom's knowledge of 
A-B Ab's may chance to give him power to read 
the advertisement of his sale to-morrow, whereupon 
the slave-roll of morning daw T n reveals the count 
minus Tom. Then again intelligence is antagonistic 
to the brute element of man. Now we are to recol- 
lect a slave is valued not as man is valued princi- 
pally by the amount of his intelligence. He is 
estimated not only by the health of constitution and 
the measure of his muscles, but the question is what 
is the gauge of his brute element ? How many 
children can he see sold at auction, and not lose an 
hour's work for his weeping over the endless part- 
ing ? Intelligence refines, bringing in the celestial 
and working out the base and the brutal, increasing 
moral sensibility and social affection. Spelling books 
would ruin slavery ; it can't stand the alphabet or 
the old fashioned baker table. No, it would work 
its overthrow by the outworking of the brute. 



244 MISSIONARY SPEECH. 

What would you or your speaker be worth for 
slaves ? We would die of homesick. The parting 
of relatives, especially from the auction block, would 
break our hearts. O ! brutalizing slavery, look out 
for the mischief of spelling books, for they are 
coming, the A-B Ab's will overthrow thee yet. This 
reflex power of Christianity may be called the van- 
tage ground of our nature, from which humanity 
starts off with a full pulse. As expressed by a 
Flathead Indian soon after being converted : "I 
feel light ; O ! mother, how light I feel ; can run 
faster than ever, and bring water and not get tired." 

Yes, this is what flashes light around us, and fire 
into us. The enterprise which Christianity gives to 
the w r orld is not to be overlooked. It effectually 
works the besotted element out of our nature, lifting 
us out of the dust and starting humanity off abreast 
with itself. From this battery of moral and intel- 
lectual electricity is to go out the power through 
this region and shadow of death, — shock after shock 
until dead eyes open, and from the graves of moral 
thraldom shall nation talk to nation of second life. 
The idols of heathendom shall be thrown to the 
moles and bats, her funeral fires shall go out, and 
old Juggernaut, whose creaking wheels have crushed 
human bones for ages, shall be wheeled from its 
bloody track, and the song of a world redeemed and 
sanctified shall be, "Now has come salvation and 
the tabernacle of God is with man !" 



SAYINGS. 



I propose to furnish the readers of " The Guide" some of the 
rich things that fall from the lips of that man of God, Eev. B. 
Pomeroy, of the Troy Conference. They are full of the marrow of 
the gospel, and many of them among the secret things which God 
reveals only to those who fear him. E. R. Wells. 



LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES * 

AT THE ALBANY DISTRICT GAMP-MEETING OF REV. B. POMEROY. 

My spiritual entertainments are greatly reduced 
in number. I live principally on four articles, — 
truth, thought, alone and God. This constitutes nay 
every-day living. I am where to be alone with God 
makes more society than when I have company. 
Then, for dainties, I have trying to do good to mau, 
and a little suffering in behalf of Christ ; it is my 
business to live, and finally die, trying to do good. 
I sometimes think I would be ashamed to go to 
heaven if I did not first kill myself on earth trying 
to do good. 

I am hid in the cleft of the rock, and am safe. If 
I am a Christian, I canH be cursed ; God can out- 
bless all the curses. My welfare is guaranteed for 

* These testimonies were gathered up from memory after they 
were uttered, and sent by another to the Guide, as the reader will 



246 LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 

both worlds. I am insured for more than I am 
worth ; it would be a speculation to die ! Glory to 
God ! I am blessed now ! I feel grand ; feel safe 
and triumphant ; " am monarch of all I survey." I 
feel both small and great, only the great is more 
than the small ! Hallelujah ! 

SUNDAY MORNING LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONY. 

As my voice is weak, I have been waiting to pass 
these Pisgahs ; but the case don't get helped ; we 
are on them, and likely to stay some time. 

"Dying and behold I live ; poor, yet making 
many rich ; having nothing, yet possessing all 
things j" this is where I live. These three contradic- 
tions describe, in part, my present inheritance. The 
infinite God and I have joined capital. The dying, 
the poor, the having nothing, is my part of the stock 
— the living, the making many rich, the possessing 
all things, is God's part. I have nothing to lose, 
and every thing to gain. 

This love-feast is old-fashioned enough for me. It 
is worth something to see heaven and earth touch at 
a distance. / am in the touchings, and it stirs me ! 

In my estimation, to be saved means more and 
more. I can say in truth, I am more extensively 
saved than ever before ; saved in centre and circum- 
ference, inside and out. Nothing short of this will 
suffice, if I would breast the current I have set 
myself against. As a Christian, I must consent to 
be misunderstood, to be misrepresented, to be con- 



LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES 247 

sidered foolish, or fanatical, or a heretic, and be 
happy through all, and over all ; happy while I 
work and wait, — wait for ray reputation, honor and 
glorification, until coronation day. He who is on 
his way to a throne need not quarrel about the style 
of going, whether it be a six-horse chariot, or two. 
I can afford to go on foot, and work and wait as I 
go. By the grace of God, I will deprive Death of 
half his spoils in me ; I will work and waste and 
wear, yes, work and ivaste and wear and exhaust, 
before death overtakes rue. It looks like a waste 
of spiritual capital to see a minister die full of life, 
and be buried fat, especially in such a world, where 
great prophets have wandered in sheep-skins and 
goat-skins, afflicted, tormented ; where Jesus Christ 
was murdered and the apostles put to death, not 
counting their lives dear unto themselves. Here, 
where the antagonisms of three worlds meet in con- 
flict desperate and deadly, let it never be said that 
a minister of Jesus Christ died of old age. 



GEMS IN RICH SETTING. 

Here are two more testimonies by Rev. B. Pomeroy, — the first 
at the last session of Troy Conference, and the other at Saratoga 
Springs. They are reported as spoken, without change. 

E. R. Wells. 

I believe in religion : I believe wonderfully in 
religion ! I find in it more and more which my im- 
mortality craves. Creatures no more divide my 



248 LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 

choice. I am taken up with this theme more and 
more. Here is a lasting entertainment This is the 
great untold story, — the Old Hundred of eternity ! 
I dare the great forever with such an entertainment ! 
Here is the rose without the thorn, the life without 
the death. 

STIRRING THREE WORLDS. 

As the brother has just said, so I can say, I am 
growing old ; but it is only outside. I have a fifty- 
nine-year-old body ; but my soul has hardly reached 
its teens. Oh ! if I only had a body fit to go along 
with my soul, I should like to enter anew this bat- 
tle-field for God, — as glorious as heaven is : and I 
know something of it ; have been up into the noise 
of wings, and the rustling of white robes ; on to the 
high Tabors of Jerusalem, where the breath of the 
Lord passed by more than once ; yet, I had rather 
stay here. Here, if I am a Christian, I can produce 
events. Staying here, I can stir three worlds — make 
men rejoice, angels sing, and devils howl in disap- 
pointment and dismay ! I can acid to the number 
of the redeemed, change the count of God's elect, 
and diminish the victims of hell ! Wear out! I can't 
wear out ! I must not wear out ! I am just getting 
ready for the conflict ! Praise God ! I am saved, 
and have been all winter ! 

Saratoga Springs. 

I don't know as there will be time for a stranger 
to speak. I fear I shall not be able to come within 
the limits this morning, although I know some great 



LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 249 

ivords, can speak some spiritual abbreviations, yet, I 
may not come within the limits. I will not go into 
the past, although I have a past of forty-five years, 
marked with providence and grace, with trials and 
triumphs : a fruitful field to glean in ; but I am 
overwhelmed with the present of Christianity — a 
present, independent of seasons or place — a present 
so rich and full that it stands equal to itself, with 
the incomes of past and future struck off. Glory to 
God for the rich, contented present of the kingdom ! 
The world has nothing to equal this — their joys are 
in the future. 

The brother from New York is thankful for Meth- 
odism. I can say the same. I believe very much in 
Methodism, — the real Methodism ; an ism sent out, 
as it were, on foot and alone, wuthout friends or 
reputation. Having neither purse nor scrip, and not 
more than one coat, it took the world at a disadvan- 
tage. Prejudiced churches, ready to bolt it out of 
the w r orld, besotted colliers and wild, whooping In- 
dians its field ; yet, notwithstanding these disad- 
vantages, this Methodism has achieved the greatest 
moral triumph ever known on this globe. 

I can hardly away with this perpetual doctoring 
of this system. I say, hands off ! Doctors, away 
with your quackery ! — here is a system that will 
bear to run a little longer without any more tinker- 
ing. I clearly see that depravity is the chief gainer 
in many of the changes made. 

My objection to the fashionable religion of the 



250 LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 

day is, that it is too easily comprehended — it lies 
too much within the scope of human wisdom. Phi- 
losophy is at home here. Brethren, the religion of 
Jesus Christ leaves philosophy dumb and dark, and 
human wisdom a fool — it lies away from the obvious 
toward the mysterious. The born of God, the risen 
with Christ, have already entered the great unspeak- 
able : these have gone into the deep mysterious too 
far already for philosophy to fathom. 

The religion of the day is compounded too much 
of the human. I see this through my experience, 
for I am saved through the blood of the Lamb, — 
saved deep and high, — saved beyond the human into 
the divine. There is no need of my going up 
into heaven to hear God's voice. If I am a Chris- 
tian, I have the loudest words in me, spoken so deep 
that they shall never be unspoken. These are more 
to me than all the outside talk of the uuiverse. 

HEAVEN OF THE SOUL. 

I hear people talk a great deal about going to 
heaven. Well, let them go, and talk and sing of it 
as they go ; but I wish to say this, — that, if you are 
a Christian, there is more heaven in you than you 
will ever find out of you. Explore the past, search 
the universe through, and the first and last essential 
heaven you will ever find will be the heaven in you ; 
and if you fail here at home, you will eternally fail 
abroad. I praise God for the deep, abiding home- 
heaven of the soul. 



LOVE FEAST TESTIMONIES. 

BY REV. B. POMEROY. 

(Continued.) 

The following is the substance, with additional 
thoughts, of a testimony at the Albany centenary 
love-feast. — e. k. w. 

I have come ten miles to attend this centenary 
love-feast. I was anxious to see the Methodist family 
of Albany together. I expected to see God at this 
meeting, for I am out in search of the Invisible. 
After being deceived by the " Lo, here! and Lo, 
there !" of great performances and great performers, 
after being disgusted with myself and ashamed of 
others, I turn away from man-show to see God. I 
adore God in man, in saint-man. I see him there, 
though more or less mixed with the human, still, 1 
see God, and am learning to distinguish between the 
divine and the human, both in myself and in others. 
And occasionally we find the Divine acting in and 
through a saint, when it seems to be all divine. — 
What a spectacle ! Let angels adore ! The Great 
Supreme reigning alone in a human being ! God in 
man, unmixed with self ! I stand in awe of such a 
being, such a God-man being — my soul seems to 
touch something when I come where they breathe 
the faintest prayer. How contemptible man-show 
appears before a revealed God ! 

Then I am having another experience, of late, 



252 LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 

which is becoming very interesting, to myself, at 
least. We sing and pray much about being saved 
up, — up into the higher degrees of Christianity. 
This is proper ; but God is saving me down, — down 
to things small and lowly. Perhaps others are not 
so slow as I have been in learning the secret things 
of the kingdom ; for it is only a few years since I 
discerned some of the deeper truths, which should 
have been entered into long ago. Forty-five years 
have passed since I was marvelously converted — 
changed in a moment ; but that other change spoken 
of by Christ, viz. : to become a little child, it seems 
to me I am entering more fully into of late than ever 
before. God is saving me down, — down to the 
child-mood. I feel so humble, so meek, so small! 
and occasionally I seem to go still lower down, — 
fitly called the Zaft/e-child attitude. Oh, how quiet 
and restful this state is, when the great responsibil- 
ities roll up, and Satan would frighten me through 
the mcm-appearance and position of myself! and the 
inquiry arises, "Who is sufficient for these things?" 
Then I nestle away under the wings of the Almighty, 
so child-like, and feel so quiet and safe ! and now I 
can do it so naturally! 

I am saved into these extremes ; am growing 
both ways, — down to the simplicity and lowliness 
of a child, and up to the grandeur of a worker with 
God. Both extremes are of God, especially the 
lowly degrees. Yes, I confess to more of God in 
the child-traits of my character than in the man-at- 



LOVE-FEAST TESTIMONIES. 253 

lainments. I find there is more of me for God when 
part child, than when I am all man. The hiding 
of the divine power is in the child jpart of onr being. 
The revelations are made, not to the wise and pru- 
dent, but unto babes. 

I take this to be the critical point in our salvation, 
especially in this smart age. Here is the strait gate 
to the inner temple. When we are weak, then are 
we strong. When the child and the man meet, when 
the great and the small come together, look out for 
a mysterious being ! Something will be done ! 

If I am not deceived, I have reached that sublime 
altitude in Christ where I dare to be a little child ; 
can weep without being compelled to atone for it 
with shame, after it is over ; can praise God as though 
I had a right to do so. God can send me on any 
errand, put me to any chore that a child can do, and 
I go about it singing, and happy as I go. Then the 
men are so numerous, and the children so few, that 
the work in my line is quite behind. I am so pas- 
sive that God can make me into any fashion ; key 
and tone me to any cadence ; sing all His tunes in 
me, and speak all His accents through me. I dare 
give to the Church all the God-talk in me, without 
changing an accent. This is the grace I adore ; am 
happy in God, love His words and love His work. 



22 



THE CHRISTIAN A MYSTERY.* 



BY REV. B. POMEROT. 



Were I an infidel, it has seemed to me for years 
that I should be perplexed, at least, with some of 
the developments of Christian character, even in 
these clays of lenity and conservatism. 

While I might account for many of the incidents 
of that character, on the ground of mere human mo- 
tives, or worldly considerations ; still, many of his 
acts, and more of his experiences, are positively be- 
yond and above the scope of self, the world, or 
carnal pleasure. 

Criticize, analyze or anatomize as we may — we 
shall fail to find where low considerations and prac- 
tical godliness intersect. 

This, however, is not the full statement of the 
case. 

Much that I see, and more that I do not see, is 
not only above and beyond, but is positively in 
defiance of selfish considerations. Here is evi- 
dently a real, organized life, of which I hear my 
brother speak — a life not governed by the changes of 
season or place; a life maintaining itself not only when 
denied the co-operation of carnal self, the customs 
and counsels of worldly power and aggrandize- 
ment ; but a life running on and up, though in defi- 
ance of these influences, breasting the intersecting 

* This article appeared first in the Earnest Christian. 



THE CHRISTIAN A MYSTERY. 255 

currents of the world, the flesh and the devil ; mak- 
ing headway against the linked and leagued powers 
of the fallen worlds — even with self a confederate 
with foes. 

The measure of the superhuman in the human, may 
be estimated in part by the amount of the human 
resisted. 

In short, what is your power of self-denial — what 
is the extent of your dominion over yourself? Be 
it more or less, it is the sum of your moral power. 
Dare you be right and do right, against yourself, to 
God ? If so, you are more than a match for infidel- 
ity at this degree. But this is not the depth of the 
mystery. That I may so be endowed with a power 
above myself — that I am able to resist and overcome 
myself in all the strongholds of my nature — is one 
of God's marvels, obviously. But that I am made 
happy in the conquest, is the depth of the mystery. 
That in denying myself I find more happiness than 
when living to myself; that in being abashed, I am 
dignified ; and when the nearest dead, there is the 
most life in me ! Who can comprehend the Divine 
logic of self-reversion ? 

O, ye second-born ot God ! know your strength ; 
the power of conquest is ordained for you ! Not, 
however, as man expects ; it will not come along the 
line of human greatness and human show, The fail- 
ure of the Christian begins where he would be some- 
thing out of Christ. 

You triumph over the world, not by explanations, 



256 VISION OF DEATH. 

not by logic — not even by consistency, as the world 
makes it — but by the Divine mystery of you, the 
deep unspeakable in you ; not so much by what is 
said, as by what is unsaid. It is the great unsaid 
of your being that baffles hell ! 

Which life predominates ? Which rules ? What 
sceptre occupies the ramparts of the dominions of 
self to-day ? Does the new man triumph, or does 
the old aboriginal / hold the situation — disputing 
even your right to have a conscience, except in league 
with pride and worldliness ? 

O, ye hand-cuffed menials of carnal self and carnal 
world ! Moving in chain-gangs of a whole Church 
to a squad ; with only here and there one who is 
free in Christ Jesus — who dare live to God against 
themselves. 

O, Zion, arise ! Put on thy strength and beauty ! 
Face the world in the panoply of meekness, holiness 
and godly sincerity — these take depravity unawares. 
Great zeal, great benevolence, great gifts and great 
arguments, the world is master of ; but the concealed 
power of the ancient Nazarene bewilders earth and 
hell. 



VISION OF DEATH. 

By special request, I give here what may be called 
a vision of death. 

The view came on while asleep, and was contin- 
ued after waking. These are the circumstances : 



VISION OF DEATH. 257 

About one year ago, after attending nine protracted 
meetings, more or less, I failed — was taken sick 
while preaching in Esperance church, (a little west 
of Albany). In great distress, I was taken to the 
house of Brother Brumley, who with Brother Avery 
and families proved themselves friends in need, as 
did also a Brother at the next door to Bro. B., with 
others. This mention of their kindness is the best 
reward they will receive from me, as compensation 
is rejected. 

My distress was so severe, especially in my left 
side, as to bring a groan at every breath, — even 
heard by the neighbors, as they since informed me. 
But I was saved, deep and quiet, within. At length 
I felt a similar pain coming on in my right side. 
Then I wept and prayed, — told the Lord it would 
overdo the case. It would break the earthern vessel. 
Then again, my religion could not endure two such 
pains at once. With one pain the Lord might take 
me through with honor to His saving grace ; but 
two would defeat the victory. But the pain paid 
no attention to tears or prayers, and like a sullen 
battery it moved up to its post, as if to alternate 
shocks with its twin the other side. There I lay, 
though begirt with piercing pains, the gracious God 
saved still. Then I wept again because of my small 
ideas of the All-sufficiency. There the Divine 
presence held me in holy serenity with two pains at 
once. Glory to God forever ! 



258 VISION OF DEATH. 

What a doubting faith is this that thinks to match 
the "Mighty to save" with one pain! For holy 
advancement in the deep and high, give a saint 
unfaltering faith in God and two pains at once ! 

Here, after hope of recovery had revived, and 
supposing I should not be able to preach any more 
after this severe sickness, I promised to publish a 
book. It came upon me as a duty, — something like 
my call to preach. 

But to this vision of death. There have been 
only two short periods of my life when I could 
contemplate abstract death to myself with pleasure. 
These were the only two instances when I appre- 
hended death immediate. This is one of the two. 
There is in my nature a deep, implacable abhorence, 
both to dying and to being dead. Much of the 
time I am unable to face the event even in thought 
at a distance with composure. Being so different in 
this respect from the most of Christians that I have 
heard speak on this subject, I have been led to 
doubt the genuineness of my religion. But when 
I bring the connections of dying in Christ, — of 
faith's last triumph hour, — of the light of resur- 
rection morn breaking through into death's dark 
vale, I am ready to exclaim, " O, death, where is 
thy sting ?" 

While in the severity of these sufferings, by the 
effect of medicines, I fell asleep ; when death came 
dashing down the road of life, on his pale horse, — 



VISION OF DEATH. 259 

coming suddenly in view as if rounding a curve. 
At sight of poor me he stopped quick, and leveled 
his arrow steady at me. It was red and tremulous 
at the point, like adder's tongue, as if lapping life 
from a distance. There he sat in ghostly gaze ! — 
all grim — greedy — stark — bony ! We changed looks 
solemnly. I spake audibly thus : " Suppose you are 
the king of terrors ! No doubt you are to some, 
but not to me, thanks be to Jesus Christ ! You are 
my servant. You are Christ's chore boy, and you 
will have to do some chores for me some time. But, 
mark you, when we do meet, you will not take me, 
but I shall take you, and you will have to come 
down and take off my sandals, and pack away this 
clay-house vehicle in your store-house, (as you call 
it.) for safe keeping. But, take notice, when the 
inheritance of redeemed bodies is wanted, your 
leave will not be asked, with all your gingle of 
keys. Jesus Christ is the higher owner of death's 
dark realm, and some day He will drive His earth- 
quake train through this marble empire, unhinging 
every gate, the sullen bolts shall drive back, — post 
and pinnacle shall reel before Him, while He ran- 
sacks old golgotha for sainted dead, — His Calvary 
purchase, and He will take them out, too, and He 
will take you also, hitched to His fire wheels, and 
He '11 whirl you to hell ! Make much of crown and 
arrows, and keys, for they are yet to be strewed in 
the track of Christ's train, which takes you to long 
captivity." 



260 MACHINE WORSHIP. 

Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. "To die is gain ! !" 

" Behold, what heavenly prophets sung, 
Is now at last fulfilled ; 
And death yields up his ancient reign, 
And vanquished, quits the field. 

Let faith exhalt her joyful voice, 
And now in triumph sing — 
O, grave, where is thy victory ? 
And where, 0, death, thy sting ?" 



MACHINE WORSHIP. 

Extract, with additional thoughts, from a Sermon preached in a 
Church whose Choir used a Melodeon. 

A great organ in the church of God, monopoliz- 
ing all ears with empty sound ! Machine worship ! 
Harmonious display of wind — wind gone mad — wind 
in distress ! We almost think the cattle plague has 
come, such deep groanings and rattlings in the 
throat ! 

And then, do you believe it ? they ask me to join 
this senseless machine in its wind distress, and call 
it worship ! I tell you, it's a burlesque on my in- 
tellect, to say nothing of my soul. It assumes that 
my chief importance lies in my ears. That I am 
not capable of thought or sentiment, and can live on 
empty sound, if it is only big enough. " Give him 
great bellow, and he's happy !" (So I am, in my 
ears.) I like that melodeon and choir. I understand 



MACHINE WORSHIP. 261 

what it says. It treats me as a rational being, ad- 
dressing my intellect and soul, dispensing thought 
and sentiment. 

For mere sound, just for ear entertainment, I pro- 
nounce the organ the grandest noise I know of, 
except thunder, great ocean's roar, and old Niagara. 
But, for a human contrivance, without controversy, 
it stands at the head of big melody. Take one who is 
so cornered between the lets and hindrances of times 
and seasons that there is nothing on earth for him 
to do, and he is too lazy to think, for a mere pas- 
time, to match the outward blank, give us harmoni- 
ous emptiness. But he who can be inspired and 
entertained on machine noise simply, mistakes his 
ears for himself. He has not so much as opened the 
door of his great inner court. 

We generally subordinate our ears to the mind ; 
but here is an arrangement for subordinating mind 
to ears. As door keepers to play-houses expect the 
profits of one play at least, so, to keep on good terms 
with the door arrangement of mind, we give our 
ears a benefit, as if to compensate for conveying 
pulpit message to the soul. I may get used to it, 
but the signs are of getting worse. For, how like 
a fool I feel, standing up with my neighbors in a 
church, six feet high, like a great simpleton, gaping 
at a Yankee machine for tootino;. 

To do our thanksgiving and praising by machinery 
is, no doubt, aristocratic, and withal, a mighty saving 
on flesh and blood. But when you ask me to close 



262 MACHINE WORSHIP. 

my eyes and join this senseless thing for half an 
hour in its intermittent swoon and spasm, and call 
it worshiping God in the spirit and with the under- 
standing, — I tell you that is carrying the joke a 
little too far. That is too old fogy for me. It 
might do for besotted ancient Hebrews, who were 
incapable of an intangible idea or an invisible God, 
— who could stand in doubt for days and days 
whether the God of heaven brought them out of the 
land of Egypt, or a golden calf. Or for Catholics, 
who are edified more by pictures and sounds than 
by spiritual perceptions. But to ask me, in the noon 
of the world, to postpone my intellect and soul both 
to the gratification of my ears, and stare and gape 
over empty sound, like dogs barking at the ringing 
of church bells, that's a slander on my manhood. I 
have got a little too far along for that, Small as 
I am, I have outgrown ears at last. 

What do you sa} r ? That I have no love for music ? 
Well, that is because you don't know me. My friend, 
I have stopped in the road in cold weather to hear 
the wind whistle through a rail fence. But, O, when 
the wild geese go over — that's the time to get thrilled! 
I have gazed up into the heavens after their music 
till I was too dizzy to walk. Don't you call that 
loving music some ? I feel at such times as when I 
hear an organ, only more so — I suppose because the 
music comes from so high in the heavens. I feel 
so excited and thrilled, I seem to be drunk outside. 
(You know what I mean.) But I never supposed 



MACHINE WORSHIP. 263 

that was religion. If it is, let the wild geese hurry 
up, that we may be revived. 

But the greatest music I ever got from mere empty 
sound, was on the top of a great mountain, when 
my companion and myself rolled a great rock off the 
top. O, me ! How it rumbled down that naked 
loftiness, grinding brimstone out of granite ! Then 
when it began to leap ! Then down among the 
trees in dashing, crashing, smashing tumult, sending 
up the deep, doleful echoes of its boundings ! — that 
I call music. And but for my miserable ignorance 
in not knowing that that was religion, what strides 
I might have made toward heaven, especially with 
the advantage of being so far that way ! 

But, to sober down on my subject, let us turn to 
fact and philosophy. A mind, though of small ca- 
pacity and limited culture, requires sentiment. It 
is true, the ideas or truths must be diluted and ex- 
tensively repeated, still with all this rhapsody of 
repeating and whirling you must filter through some 
thought to satisfy the inner man. While the large 
and mature minds demand sentiment condensed, 
they can hardly away with the repetition of truth. 
They demand mind entertainment, They can't be 
postponed on repetition, and especially on mere 
sound. And they require massive truth to satisfy 
their mind craving. 

Now, there are a variety of ways for dispensing 
or communicating sentiment to the mind. The most 
effectual and available is through the channel of 



264 MACHINE WORSHIP. 

sound. I am aware of the language of sculpture 
and painting, of tragedy and the dramatic, but these 
are not available, and very limited in expression. 
The human voice is mysteriously put in communica- 
tion with soul, and is ordained to give power to 
thought ; so that Ave are great gainers when we even 
talk to ourselves. For thoughts are born with talk 
in them. 

Like some rocky caverns I have seen where the 
echo was more than the original sound, so thought 
augments itself by its own echo. 

But when we come to religious sentiment we 
touch a deeper mystery in this soul intercourse. 
Too deep, I confess, for my abilities, and I must get 
out of this the best I can. It reminds me of the 
saying of a shrewd minister to one who had been 
greatly favored in preaching at camp-meeting. He 
said, " you will show yourself in getting down from 
this flight ; God showed Himself in taking you up. 
And now if you can come down gracefully to your- 
self, which is not much, I will give you the remain- 
der of the meeting to do it in." So I may require 
the remainder of the page for getting out of my 
subject. 

Sound, harmonious and pleasant to the ear, is a 
better medium of thought than that which is dis- 
cordant. Holy truth uttered in the experience of 
truth — in the inspiration of truth, is poetry — poetry 
with the music added. Music, too, in all ears whether 
rude or cultivated. This music never went to 



MACHINE WORSHIP. 265 

school. Its schooling is born in it. It's above 
being taught. All made or learned music is an at- 
tempt to simulate this native music of the soul. 
Emotion is both its cause and effect. Truth brought 
to the mind through the channel of appropriate mu- 
sic, is truth moving in its own native livery. More 
of man is reached, excited and thrilled — inspired 
and blessed through truth expressed in song than in 
any other way. Here he is blessed in soul, intellect 
and body, from outside nerve and muscle, back to 
unfathomable immortality. It's coming into man 
dominion on three roads at once. 

But when your music fails to express sentiment, 
you are left to serve muscles, and no marvel if there 
should be found those who know the difference 
between being excited in nerve and muscle, and 
being put into soul concord with angels and God. 

There is music in ocean's mighty roar ; but mark 
ye, the power of that music is more in the ocean 
than in the roar. Take from that foaming surge the 
vast fact that the swell which is now breaking in 
solemn cadence at your feet is only the leader of a 
train three thousand miles in extent, which, like 
clashing chariots, come racing through the blue fields 
of vastness, making tumult sublime ! 

Now, suppose you invent a machine that shall 

mimic ocean's roar ; then ask me to appreciate your 

music. To stand breathless, in solemn, sublime 

contemplation. Nonsense — it's impossible. For the 

loss of a fact of three thousand miles extent, you set 
23 



266 MACHINE WORSHIP. 

me down to the twaddle of a Yankee invention for 
roar. The sublimity — the inspiration and power of 
the roar is in the ocean. Take human intelligence 
and human soul out of music — putting a machine 
in the place of man, and you go down to child's 
play. I once visited a panorama where they had 
a thunder storm. They rolled the thunder very 
well, but it lacked God's chariot wheels over the 
upper pavements. 

Soul born music is begotten of truth's inspiration. 
It's the mother tongue of emotion, talking from me- 
lodious soul up to heaven ! It's the gift of frankin- 
cense and myrrh ! Odor from the alabaster box, 
fragrant to God ! It's the soul's great laugh — the 
dance within — the clap of hands which angels throng 
to hear ! 

You may imitate thunder, and lightning too, for 
aught I know, and play ocean's roar. But will you 
think to substitute momentous man with machinery, 
putting a wind-mill into the place of soul ? I tell 
you that machine is blasphemy on man. 

And now, my friends, we must part, and, I fear, 
in disagreement. But the disagreement is not where 
you think it is. You think I am incapable of appre- 
ciating instrumental music. What ! Am I made 
coarser than a Bengal tiger, who can be fiddled out 
of the last leap to his prey, calming down to domes- 
tic mood, with claws drawn in, just on fiddling ? I 
tell you I am full of music. (At least, as much so 
as a tiger.) Can't be touched at arm's length with- 



BIACHINE WORSHIP. 267 

out jingling. No, the disagreement is not on this 
side the question. It's just here, in the vast differ- 
ence of our views on Divine worship — of our estimate 
of man — of man's momentous soul, — of its religious 
aspirations, and deep wants and longings. 

If 1 could degrade man down to the tastes and 
capacities of a mere child with a rattle-box — incapa- 
ble of thought, sentiment or emotion, then I would 
say, let out on ears, machine us happy. It's the 
cheapest entertainment you can give us. But we 
are too far along for the rattle-box entertainment, 
big or little. 

Music is capable of dispensing sentiment to great 
advantage. But when you deprive it of this ex- 
pression, a fraud is practiced on our spiritual nature. 
With strong voices which give expression to senti- 
ment, a melodeon may be a good appendage. But 
away with this avalanche of empty sound. A min- 
ister may scream, and shout, and cry, and laugh, — 
stamp and pound according to the best rules of 
oratory, and some might live on his gesticulation, 
calling him a wonderful man ; but most of our con- 
gregations could not be turned off on manner, though 
perfect. They demand the stirring truth ! 

" God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, 
must worship Him in spirit and in truth." See 
Bible. We are also to sing in the spirit and with 
the understanding, making melody in our hearts 
unto the Lord. 



PRESENT MORE THAN PAST. 

When I see a Christian with face half turned to 
the past, as though to catch a glimpse of a distant 
light — when I see his countenance glow with anima- 
tion over this backlook on himself, while he talks 
of the day of his conversion as the bright day of 
his life, with nothing new to add of what he now is, 
I suspect the present of that man. 

Does the radiance of Christianity come from the 
past? 

Is the pilgrim, on his way to fairer worlds on 
high, to grope his journey through by the dim cheer 
of a departing rear light ? Is he to feel his way 
into a dubious future, with a half turn on the past, 
as though to doubt progression ? Poor, benighted 
soul! Transporting noon from distant dawn — call- 
ing twilight day ! 

Is not the past the darkest side of Christianity ? 
Then face about, poor pilgrim, square into the 
brighter present, fronting the high noon of the 
future ! 

What a spectacle is presented by these relapsed 
converts — many, alas, long relapsed — grey headed 
with years — yet talk of childhood's feeble state as 
the best of life. 

Dark indeed must be the night 

When morning gray appears so bright ! 

How, otherwise, can we account for this strange 
perversion, but in the fact that the present is so dark ? 



PRESENT MORE THAN PAST. 269 

Is the real Christian, then, to hold no intercourse 
with the past ? Is he to shut his eyes on all behind ? 
By no means. The past will ever be to him fraught 
with interest. He goes there for instruction, for 
reproof, for self-abasement, for excitements to grat- 
itude, for encouragement, &c. — but not for ecstacies, 
the Pisgahs do not lie in that direction. 

To the progressive Christian, the past will be 
contemplated with emotions painfully pleasing. His 
present attainments in wisdom and holiness leaves 
the comparison increasingly against the past. 

While, by his progression in spirituality, he is 
enabled to appreciate more clearly the patience of 
God towards him in the past ; by the same light he 
also sees his own errors and sins, from which arises 
the painfulness of the reflection. 

The question for me and all to settle, is not what 
we once were, but what we now are. The verdict 
on our character — on our religion, comes not from 
the past or future, but from the inexorable present. 
Can I stand the test of the present ? Can I live and 
triumph under the awful scrutiny and pressure of 
the present ? If so, then I triumph by the grace 
of God, over the past, though it be against me ! 

Full, contented, holy present ! 
"Who can tell its wondrous meaning ? 
More on God's great hook than all the years before ? 
Great offset 'gainst the sinful past — 
Prelude of holier morrow ! 



PEESENT AND FUTURE COMPARED. 

Is this a true representation of the religion of 
Jesus Christ ? Is this the language of the kingdom 
which I hear so much these later years ? 

Is it so, that Christianity is destitute of an ade- 
quate present ? This is the inference from the tes- 
timony of many professors. Hear it : 

"Do not live as I ought — often neglect my duty, 
but God is merciful to me and I am enabled to look 
forward to that day when I shall meet my dear 
friends, where troubles never come. No, brethren, 
I would not give up my hope of heaven for ten 
thousand worlds like this. Unfaithful as I am, I 
have some of that love which I felt years ago, when 
the Lord converted me." 

Brethren, has it come to this, that, while religion 
has a bright beginning and a hopeful ending — while 
a light glimmers in the past and hope is pointing to a 
better future — that the present is all a blank ? Is 
this the kingdom of God within us, so much cele- 
brated in the Bible ? 

A tolerable yesterday for the past, with a better 
morrow for the future, but a dark void to-day ! A 
present, cheerless and empty, with outstretched 
hands to past and future for relief! Two flicker- 
ing, distaut lights, meeting in one great dark ! Is 
this the best that Christianity can do for poor souls 
on earth ? If so, it's a fraud on my confidence. 



PRESENT AND FUTURE COMPARED. 271 

The world can equal this. Multitudes of unsaved 
sinners can say as much. Go to your moral or 
immoral neighbors. Ask men who never pray, the 
price of their hope of heaven. Would it be less 
than worlds, think you ? — and doubtful at that ! 

But few of us poor pilgrims in the sober stage of 
life, but that can point to the enchantments of youth 
which still linger as brightness in the past ! — though 
never changed by grace — though never cheered by 
heavenly light. 

And who, of all the abject ones of earth, but hopes 
for better days ? Yea, even the clays of heaven ! 
Hopes are the cheapest made of all the soul's com- 
modities. Bright and gorgeous paintings of the 
future are quickly done. 

But who dare face about into the absolute to-day ? 
Who dare confront himself in vast existence now ? 
Who can retire into the clamorous present — a present 
whose empty hands stretch either way — stretching 
out from empty vastness ? Who, I say, can retire 
into this great want of himself, and find a joy un- 
speakable and full of glory ? A well of water 
springing up ? This is Bible religion. This is the 
present of the Kingdom ! 

Where is there a human being all unholy and 
depraved who, if isolated from the past and future, 
— circumscribed to himself — narrowed down to the 
silent, awful present, but would be distracted ? 
Who could withstand the yawning abyss of him- 
self, shut up to perpetual now, with contributions 



272 PRESENT AND FUTURE COMPARED. 

from future cut off? Just here we are to look 
for a marvel of Christianity. God meets the pre- 
sent with a present good, and not with distant 
hopes. 

Hope is made for emergencies, and not for every 
day life. Look out upon the multitudes who throng 
the ways of life. How few have ever entered into 
present existence ! — who have found enough in the 
present to meet their wants ? It is true, in their 
estimation, the great desideratum of happy existence 
is only just a little way ahead. Some are even 
already stepping on its shadow. O ! the delusion ! 
On the track of a phantom ! In earnest pursuit of 
a receding shadow ! Poor soul, thy hopes are vain 
— thy pursuits are fruitless ! The delusion has the 
advantage of thee, by just to-morrow ! 

Oh ! that fatal to-morrow ! — full and blooming — 
bright and joyous — but, alas, it 's to-morrow ! 
Where are the great magicians of earth — the wise 
and prudent ? Is there no power or art, by which 
that bright beyond can be stopped till void to-day 
comes up ? 

Let my poor soul rejoice ! In Christianity the 
problem is solved ! Through Jesus Christ I am 
brought into a present which is equal to its wants. 
Here is a to-day happiness, not only above word and 
thought, but transcending my hopes even. Yes ! 
Hope is more than full in the bright to-day of holy 
life ! 

Do you inquire of the Christian's future? Do 



PRESENT AND FUTURE COMPARED. 273 

you suspect the present as being enriched at the 
expense of the future — that religion is sustained on 
borrowed capital ? No, verily ! The break of this 
day is bright The ushering in of this present is 
full, — with a future, O how transporting ! A pre- 
sent marked at first with fullness — a present running 
on and up into the rich eternal morrows ! 

If I am a Christian, I have a glorious future into 
which I have a right to enter by anticipation, and 
(if I can) go up the series, from glory to glory, — ■ 
even pass the pearly gates, and stand before the 
throne in breathless adoration, while angels pros- 
trate fall, and thrice holy cry. But this glorious 
future anticipated can never be substituted for an 
unheavenly present. 

What is a real anticipation of the future ? What 
is the philosophy of heavenly prelibation? Is it 
not the natural tendency of the heaven of holiness 
within us to the heaven of promise without — the 
magnetic drawing of heaven to heaven ? The holy 
adhesion of kindred elements — of like to like ! 

How can we foretaste heaven but by a heavenly 
taste ? The absolute prerequisite to real anticipa- 
tion of heaven, is a heavenly taste. With such, 
" hope maketh not ashamed because the love of 
God is shed abroad in the heart." To such a fore- 
taste of future heaven, is the inward heaven. Then 
let the sighing ones who walk in sorrowing paths 
below, cheer the sad days of life with the New Tes- 
tament hope so big with immortality and heaven ! 



274 PRESENT AND FUTURE COMPARED. 

The radiant future looks bright from the night of 
their pilgrimage. 

But I am suspicious of that religion which lives 
so much in the future and so little in the present ; 
and especially that kind of future so much talked 
of. While we are to make all clue allowance for 
human sympathy with our ignorance of the future 
state, still I fear for the safety of many souls who 
expect to reach heaven. The character of their 
anticipations excite my fears. They have but little 
to say of present communion with the adorable 
One ; but talk of heaven. And what of heaven? 
It begins and ends with the dear ones who have 
gone before, where trouble never comes. Another 
dark sign in connection with these unheavenlv hopers 
of heaven is, that their departed friends have all 
gone to one place. That place they choose to call 
heaven, and hence they wish to go there also. This 
dream is a little too carnal, my brother, for the 
heavenly state ! 

It is to be hoped that you will meet your friends 
in that holy state at last ; but my observation shows 
that, as Christians grow holy here, the number of 
friends in heaven grow less, in their estimation. It 
is the superficial Christian who makes the way to 
heaven wide. " O," says he, " we ought to be 
charitable." It is not charity, but infidelity which 
widens the narrow w f ay to take our favorites in. It 
is infidelity which makes heaven the rendezvous of 
family circles — adjusting the balance weights on our 



BLESSED IN BODY, BUT CUESED IN SOUL. 275 

sympathy — changing the count on God's own book 
by just the names we love so dear ! 

The anticipations of the holy are not governed 
by animal instincts, belittling heaven down to the 
number of our kindred. The ties of flesh and blood 
grow weak in the closer fellowship of a holier bro- 
therhood. This is the life of God — the heaven 
within ! It's the heaven of nature in its outlookings 
and longings for the heaven of condition — the sigh- 
ings of a soul in exile for its native country. 

O, life Divine in man ! Holy existence on earth ! 
Eeal, present existence ! The great to-day of God, 
with no night beyond it ! Pulsations of holy life — ■ 
the onward flow of an eternal now — fraught with 
the treasures of all the yesterdays ! 



BLESSED IN BODY, BUT CURSED IN SOUL. 

You say, "I am thankful for temporal good — for 
food and raiment, health and friends," &c. But oh ! 
my friend, to be only blessed without, will not avail 
for the wants of thy being ! To be blessed outside, 
while a curse lives within, leaves the preponderance 
infinitely on the side of curse. Who can baffle in- 
ward misery with outside sunshine ? The inner 
state is master of the outer condition, w r hether of 
happiness or misery ! 



THE GREAT THEME. 
Salvation through the blood of the Lamb ! O, 
precious truth ! Music of my soul ! A theme for 
mortal tongues ! A song forevor new ! The Old 
Hundred of time — match of eternal years ! My 
soul adore a stoop so low — so condescending in God 
as to restore my lost being to Himself and bring me 
into brotherhood with heaven ! How shall I do to 
tell this wondrous storv ? 



GREATNESS VERSUS BASENESS. 

To know what I ought to be and do, then do it — 
do it to God and not to self, is true greatness. But 
to inquire what people say about me and think of 
me, is baseness. 



NEW YEAR'S DAY. 

Fxtract from a Sermon preached New Tear's eve. 

While time is time, in every age and place the 
same, in one sense, viz.: measured duration; yet. 
certain periods are invested with more importance 
than others. First, from certain events which have 
taken place on a certain day of the week or year, 
such as the finishing of the works of creation on the 
seventh da}^ of the week — the declaration of inde- 
pendence on the fourth of July. Then again, some 
periods become important from their relation to time 



GIRT FOE THE EACE. 277 

in general. New Year's day is not only important 
to business men for the survey and adjustment of 
their worldly concerns, but, as moral beings, it is 
interesting, as it forms a kind of promontory on the 
dead level of duration, from which we may, if we 
will, make a profitable retrospect of the past, and 
by holy resolves, obtain a more hopeful start off into 
the future. 

It is as the strike of the clock, emphasising a cer- 
tain section of duration — the passing by of another 
segment of the ponderous revolutions. A mile stone 
on life's race course — another count on our years. 
It is a boundary which should be passed with grat- 
itude and reverence, in view of Him who is the ever 
watchful; all sufficient ; who, with a steady hand, 
carries the tremulous freight of interests solemn and 
existences vast over this 'swell on the sea of time. 

Again, it is a minute period which links two years 
together, — linked so smoothlv that we are not aware 
of passing the joining. TTe are nearing this period 
now, and shall soon pass this decade of mercies — 
this mile stone of years, leaving another tally to the 
ages gone ! 



GIRT FOR THE RACE. 

He who would enter himself for the heavenly 

race course, should know his undertaking. Your 

success lies in one masculine word, " Onward!" 

Then let no wish be left behind, as with ancient 

24 



278 THE CHRISTIAN NOT TWO, BUT ONE. 

Israel. Milk and honey in Canaan it's true ; but 
alas, the leeks and onions are in Egypt, and they 
between. As one has said, where the stake is all 
one hath, betweens are abrogated. Turn your back 
on the world, then on self. Cure your longing's for 
Egypt, and face the mighty onward and the prize ! 
March your motives to the front, and what goes 
limping there, crucify and bury out of sight. 

Lay off your weights and superfluities, and come 
up like a holy Olympian to the high game of your 
being. No double-minded man with half reverted 
looking and longing on the past succeeds here ! 

No efforts as mere pastime, or as fancy or fashion 
may dictate, will avail to make thee a victor here ! 
It's desperation or failure. 

This race course is wont to witness the living 
champions of truth, who, forgetting the things that 
were behind — counting all things loss, that they 
might win the prize — have triumphed gloriously ! 

The great, the high born of heaven have passed 
through here, leaving a halo in their tracks. 



THE CHRISTIAN NOT TWO, BUT ONE. 

Mixed with the religion of our thousands, I see an 
increasing self-conservatism ; that is, a vigilant out- 
look into coming practicabilities. A pre-arrange- 
ment of self and self's appearance and of self's course, 
bo that no essential harm shall come to self, even if 



THE CHRISTIAN NOT TWO, BUT ONE. 279 

God's truth should fail. A kind of double ground, 
on which to build up a two-fold character, so that 
if the religious ground fails, we have another stand- 
ing left which we have been careful to have well 
established beforehand. 

Then again, it is convenient to have a double suit 
of character for emergencies, that, when we fall in 
with the enemies of Christ, we can assume our 
worldly attitude. Of course they know us then, for 
our place has not been forfeited by radical religion. 

Then, when we come into the Kingdom, we just 
step on to our religious ground. So we go from 
world to kingdom and from kingdom, to world. But 
the inquiry will obtrude itself into every mind, "Who 
is he — where does he belong ?" For, when he is in 
worldly society he acts just as we do, and seems to 
enjoy it. Now, who is he? Where is his life? 
Or, does he live in both part way ? In which 
character shall we call him honest ; or is he part 
hypocrite in both ? 

Said a sister, as I commended her for her kingdom 
like garb, " O, I've got jewelry and the like fixins, 
but I don't wear such things to meeting — I keep 
them for weddings and parties.' 7 

Don't you see, she is all right on the other 
character ? 

Give us the saint who occupies but one ground, 
and his all is staked on that. Give us a saint who 
is reduced to one anchor, and that struck into the 
Rock of Ages, — whose trust is on one foundation, 



280 , SIX DESCRIBED. 

and no human crutch or broken reed within reach — 
so cleared from worldly shores and human props, 
that if the Eock of Ages sinks he sinks also, — as he 
has not left one single plank on which to reach the 
shore of human policy. 



SIN DESCRIBED. 

Sin is an illegitimate birth, begotten of hell, and 
smuggled into Paradise. 

CO 

Sin is a production — it is bringing into the world 
clandestinely that which was not in existence. Sin 
is the perpetration of a wrong on God and on God's 
worlds. As a holy Being, the Infinite must resist 
and punish it. As the Supreme Ruler and Admin- 
istrator, He is bound to indemnify His worlds against 
its depredations. 

The sinner who is in league with sin and will not 
repent, must be driven from Jehovah's realms. 
There is a necessity in the case. 

The sinner is obnoxious to wrath and ruin. Jus- 
tice dooms him ; but Calvary interposes an alterna- 
tive. Will he accept it ? If so, he escapes the 
doom. If he rejects God's alternative, procured 
at such a cost, his hope is gone ! He must be 
damned ! ! 



CHARACTER PHOTOGRAPHED. 

It's not the spasmodic act, 

The great performance of a day, 

The lucky strike 'twixt times and seasons, 

Tho' never so shrewdly made, by which 

We impress ourselves on others. 

It's the undesigned emitting of the inner soul, 

So silent and unattended with design, that we heed it not. 

The lens is set to nature, not to art. 

Passing all outward show by special act put forth, 

We're taken back to root and fountain. 

The real inner self of me, 

Either good or bad, as the fact is, 

So the photograph shall be. 

Our accidental greatness 

Or unfortunate fall, 

Our disagreeable roughness 

Or sycophancy to all — 

These go for naught in this sitting ; 

It's the real self they're taking. 



SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 

Perfect sympathy with truth and goodness is the 
condition of antipathy to wrong. The power of 
detecting the subtle shades of evil, lies in a deep 
experience of goodness. 

As the white garment reveals contact with crock, 
so the exquisitely pure spirit shows the shadow of 
iniquity on its approach. It feels the touch of bad- 
ness from afar. 



282 SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 

As a blind man feels the wall before coming up 
to it, so a holy soul feels a bad person, as through 
the atmosphere ; — his sin-shade goes before him. 

To some spirits, the breath of hypocrisy becomes 
audible. The spiritual barometer is inward holiness 
— a soul so spotless — so exquisitely sensitive to 
outside climate as to be able to classify the various 
spiritual atmospheric strata through which he may 
pass. 

In your holiness is found not only the measure of 
righteous hate of iniquity, but also your sensitiveness 
to its touch. It is marvelous how some seemingly 
good people reduce all acts and all persons to about 
the same thing. They say, "bad people are not so 
bad as they appear, and as to these very very good 
ones, they are no better than other folks, if the truth 
were only known about them." So, by stamping the 
holy with hypocrisy, and whitening over the base, all 
are brought to one taste. Like sick people, to whom 
everything tastes the same, which is no taste at all. 

Now, my friend, hear one word of truth about 
yourself. You are diseased. You are sin-billious. 
Your tongue is coated. Bad and good do not taste 
alike, fix them up as you may. And there are those 
on this earth who can touch and taste and feel and 
know the other side of appearances. Let the exter- 
nal seeming be as it may, they will know what lies 
within. 

Now, my friend, if you are the one I take you to 
be, you have this sign : — you congratulate yourself 



SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 283 

on your great charity, in that you do not impute 
badness to people, as many persons do who pretend 
to be so very good. To begin with, charity is not 
so gifted in the use of the word "pretend," when 
applied to the good, as you are. And, to end with, 
charity (not infidelity) is first pure itself, when it 
knows the difference between sweet and bitter. 
Charity is no such hoodwinked, gullible simpleton 
as you suppose. Its power of inlook is enough to 
make hypocrisy quail. Its discernment is in its 
purity. 

Sin's intolerable nausea comes of the exquisite 
relish of holiness. In the love of righteousness lies 
the hate to wickedness. 

Here comes another class. And what shall they 
be called ? But for the reflection on the Infinite, 
we might pronounce some souls pure India rubber. 
You can't penetrate them either with goodness or 
badness. If we pipe never so loud, you don't catch 
them dancing ; neither will they lament if we mourn. 
Dispense to them good or bad. light or dark, prayer 
or swear, all goes for the same. All disappear 
somewhere. If it enters their mind at all, you never 
hear from it again. Then they have a cold, chilling 
love for everything and everybody. Can embrace 
a good character and one that's bad, and part in one 
and the same mood. They imbibe nothing, but give 
out cold, which makes them more tolerable in hot 
weather — only the freeze begins within. 

Here is another curiosity. They can go in among 



284 SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 

the base and profligate without suffering or apparent 
disgust ; then go to church where all is sacred and 
holy, and go home as they went. They are amphib- 
ious souls, living (such as the life is) in opposite 
elements ; sometimes in one, then in the other, then 
in both at once, part way like, or in neither, on 
emergencies. Occasionally I hear one of this class 
pray ; for they belong to the church. Some are 
ministers — nice sort of men — very circumspect. But 
O, the dignity ! Let vulgarity take off its hat ! 

These show the best to follow a revival ; that is, 
show themselves I Just to see with what dignity 
they ride the swells down to stagnation ! In some 
churches a man may busy himself two years in put- 
ting out fire. But let all such take warning that it 
costs something to agitate the cold death of a human 
soul, and kindle fire on these lower altars. 

" O !" they say, " religion don't consist in demon- 
strations, — in this noise and great ado." I don't 
suppose it does. Well, does water consist in noise ? 
I don't mean the Dead Sea or the stagnant pool, 
whose only business is to do nothing till it dies and 
turns green. I mean wide awake water that's on a 
mission. Does this kind of water consist in noise ? 
We all say no. Then according to the reasoning on 
religion, old Niagara had better stop its monstrous 
noise. Now, my brother, go on to the Canada side 
and preach decency to boisterous Niagara ; then try 
your hush on the kingdom of God ; but this empty 
sound, away with it ! 



SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 285 

But to return (as the old divines used to say) to 
the thread of my discourse. These phlegmatic souls 
tell us they don't go off on a tangent. "Well, what 
do you go on ? It would be a relief to see you go 
on any fashion. But, for mercy's sake, do stir 
once. "No," they say, "we don't believe in it, — 
don't believe in this excitement — we are not of the 
nervous temperament." Ah ! lymphatic, I suppose, 
with the eating left off! It would do us good even 
to see you eat, if you would only act half way as 
others do after eating. 

Just here that careful conservative comes up with 
a tap on the shoulder, cautioning against such hard 
talk, " It will hurt feelings." Don't be scared my 
friend, I know who I am dealing with, — have tried 
my arrows here before without exciting pity or con- 
tempt. . These folks don't get hurt so easy. You 
never saw blood in their tracks yet. They don't 
believe in excitement. They have the wherewith to 
rebound shot or shell. But for their £etting hurt, I 
should like to see some of these unstirables fall 
against a well charged battery just to see what 
lightning would do with them. 

I once knew a blind merchant who could smell 
the colors of his fabrics, and count money by feeling 
the figures on the bills ; that is, so it appeared 
from his motions, and so it was to some extent. I 
have known him to feel a horse, carelessly hitched 
in his path, in time to escape his heels. He said 
he felt him in the atmosphere. 



286 SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 

There is, no doubt, a great constitutional differ- 
ence in different persons, and we must be patient 
with each other ; but deliver me from stagnation ! 

Look at this. Take the man of a smooth, round 
look of face, a happy mood of spirits, — and withal 
big with muscle and fat. Ask him the time of day. 
He goes to the clock at once. He don't know sun- 
down by his feelings. Look at that woman of fine 
wrought frame. Whose very skin is transparent, 
leaving the nervous gause work unclothed, so very 
sensitive to outward variations. She is a sun-dial in 
herself. She feels sunrise and noon. She feels 
sun-down and can tell midnight by the weight of its 
dark. She feels the shadows of the milestones as 
they pass her on the highway of life. 

All these, however, fail to illustrate the greater 
difference found in mind sensitiveness. This is by 
some attributed to the intellect ; — that persons of 
large intellect are not apt to be so emotional. 

Hold on my friend ! This will never do. If it is 
any sign at all, it points in the opposite direction. 
Intellect is to the soul somewhat as the hopper is to 
the millstones. It furnishes grinding. A small 
intellect furnishes but little work for the soul, hence 
it gets sluggish. 

Then, to say nothing of devils, this is a reflection 
on the great angels who are very demonstrative, as 
it is called. They get so carried away at times as to 
throw their crowns right down at the feet of God, 
and cover their faces, and cry holy three times at 



SOUL SENSITIVENESS. 287 

least, — think of that ! Then they shout so loud ! 
They gave us the key note for the gospel dispensa- 
tion over old Judea. It was "glory to God in the 
highest m " — and over the matters of our welfare at 
that. Paul was the greatest intellectual man of all 
the Apostles ; and as a result in part, he came 
nearest being crazy of holy excitement. He went 
so far once as to be in doubt whether his soul was 
in his body or out. This makes the saying of Crom- 
well true " that a man never rises so high as when 
he knows not whither he is going." Our trouble is, 
we are too familiar with circles, and small at that. 

The curse is not in the intellect, great or small. 
It's in soul death, — death laid out and nicely 
embalmed, — 'embalmed so in the look of life as to 
deceive the very elect. Laid out sitting up and sit- 
ting in the church ! Embalmed in ordinances. 
Disconnect them from the church, and every one 
would know they were not Christians, and better 
still they would know it themselves ; but as it is, 
they are kept blinded — self-deceived, whether minis- 
ter or laymen, — embalmed in death through re- 
ligious ceremonies. O, that the plausible garb 
could be rent, and the thing unwound down to soul 
mummy ! How the intellect would cry out with 
disgust at the sight ! And then, that it had so long 
been mocked in bringing fuel to an altar that never 
knew fire. 

And now, my clear brother, let me encourage you 
by saying you can be cured. I know it, — I have 



288 TRUTH AND RIGHT IMMORTAL. 

been in your state — in the laid out state. But O, 
the gracious God in my behalf came down ! He 
spake to inward death, "come forth!" And you 
can live a life worthy of the name. You are not 
half developed yet. The baptism of fire .on your 
soul would add a new infinity to you on the most 
available side. 



TRUTH AND RIGHT IMMORTAL. 

The best chance of my life, for immortal honor, I 
let slip. It is true, I have alwa}-s preached against 
slavery fearlessly, and sympathized with those w T ho 
left the church on account of this dark spot on her 
character. But my calamity is that I was never 
called an abolitionist, not even one of the respect- 
able class, (to say nothing of the hot-headed kind.) 
Think of one born in the centre of Massachusetts, 
(don't mistake the State for Connecticut — its Massa- 
chusetts !) Then, connected with the Methodist 
church for forty-five years, which has administered 
so much solemn talk against slavery, and yet, up to 
this day, have not shared the honor of tar and 
feathers. Not one rotten egg can I adduce as a me- 
morial of my pedigree. 

It is true, at the commencement of the rebellion 
I preached all about the country, for one year, on 
Southern infamy, Northern treachery, &c. But, alas 
for my crown, I was too late ! Abolitionism was 
already receiving its honors. Fremont's fatal mis- 



TRUTH AND RIGHT IMMORTAL. 289 

take lay in bis birth. He was born six months too 
soon. It took the nation that time to come up to 
his stand-point. I was born twice that time too 
late. Deliver me from being born out of due time, 
on the shadow side of the line, doomed to live on 
the fainting echo of a progression gone six months 
out of sight ! Like the tail of a serpent which 
indicates nothing to come, only a sad history out 
of date, saying to the late borns which way the 
world went long time ago. Hurry on to the front 
and mark the zigzag predictions of his head, if you 
would know the character of the world's coming 
epoch ! 

So with our general conference — too late. After 
God and Lincoln had struck down this great born 
of hell, as too odious for the outside world to endure, 
we rolled the dead carcass out of the church, leaving 
putrefaction on its threshold to this clay. Well in- 
deed that the work is done, only let us have the 
washing ceremony. But it was done too late to save 
the laurels. Let us learn from the past infallibles 
and the present inexorables, that he who lays his 
beams in blood and builds his towers with bones, 
has a reckoning awaiting him, and it must come ! 

A nation, a monarch, a man, even, through the 

sophistry of unrighteousness, may flourish for the 

time being. The multitudes may cry out "great is 

Diana, or Democracy !" All may seem to go well for 

years, with wrong in the ascendancy, while virtue lies 

distressed beneath the proud oppressor's hand ; but 
25 



290 TEUTH AND EIGHT IMMOETAL. 

the oncoming progression of right shall stamp the 
supporters of wrong with infamy. 

We may play our national games against unalter- 
able justice, and think to have our way against God 
and humanity, and glide on smoothly for a time. 

TVe may import cargoes of night and besotted 
souls for the purpose of outflanking justice through 
the polls, and oppress our homeborn by foreign re- 
cruits to dark iniquity, but the fiery maledictions of 
the next generation will curse the plot to hell. 

Some limbs are so diseased as to make amputation 
the kindest treatment possible for the body ; so 
some crimes are so despoiling and death generating 
as to make the destruction of their perpetrators the 
mildest treatment possible for the safety of the 
world. 

God decided long ago that incurable slaveholders 
had better be killed. Their crime is so brutalizing 
and demoralizing as to disqualify them forever for 
restoring remedies ; they can only be dealt with 
by destructive cures. The Red Sea was of more 
account in ridding Eg}'pt of this brood of vamp}'res 
than all God's wonders wrought through Moses. 
So we have exhausted the palliatives and molliners, 
the patience and kindness of heaven and earth, on 
Southern slave-holders, to no purpose. Sending 
missionaries, school teachers, inventions and com- 
promises, without a cure. At last, big guns have 
been more availing on the well-being of humanity 
than cargoes of bibles. Buchanan has had his day, 



TRUTH AND RIGHT IMMORTAL. 291 

though brief. His night has set in. Lincoln, stand- 
ing great and grand in moral attitude as he does, 
is less to-day than he will be one hundred years from 
this time. Johnson, the tool of corruption and op- 
pression, attracts the fiery indignation of the moral 
sense of the nation. It is only the dignity of the 
White House holding back incensed Justice, which 
lets him live. 

Millennium is the first high goal in the grand march 
of progression. Whoever grows dark or less in 
going this way, had better die soon, and hide away 
from the awful scrutiny of advaucing truth and light. 
He who is right and is doing right, need not stop 
to inquire who or what stands with him. If so it 
be, let him stand alone in the right, and die alone in 
the right — his honor shall come. The high born 
of earth shall yet pass that way, progressive truth 
shall give him friends, though dead, and even bury 
him over again with a higher meaning, as is often 
done. 

The glory of truth's high and holy warfare in 
mortality lingers and lives in bones. A righteous 
man was never buried yet ! the eternal years belong 
to him, and he shall outlast earth's best granite ! 

It is only recently that they have been digging 
and searching for the least remains of Eoger Wil- 
liams, one hundred and eighty years dead and yet 
alive. There was President Edwards, of Northamp- 
ton, near where I was born, of whom I have heard 
from childhood, who was expelled from his church 



292 A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 

for preaching against the dancing, card playing and 
frolicking of her members, stands a tower of right- 
eousness to-day — his honor has come at last. While 
that blind guide near us, who advocates these vulgar 
practices for Christians, even with printed pamphlet, 
stands a reproach to the ministry, even with respect- 
able sinners. 

Away, then — away on to the side of right ! Be 
in haste to plant yourself in the pathway of truth's 
on-coming triumphant march, and there wait and 
work till eternal justice shall walk the world's high 
honor up to you ! 



A WOKD TO THE SAINTS. 

I wish to speak to the few found in every church 
who walk with Christ in close and holy fellowship, 
those w T ho have renounced the vain pomp and glory 
of the w^orld, with covetous desires, &c, not in word 
only, but in fact. I come to you who are so cruci- 
fied to the world that you dare do your duty though 
it be against the fashionable religion of the times. 
To you who have been crucified and buried with 
Christ, and some of you buried so deep that one 
almost smells the damp of the tomb on you, yea, 
more, to the risen with Christ ! 

O, triumphant being ! O, blessed of the Lord ! 
Thy light shall break forth as the morning, and thy 
brightness shall increase to the perfect day. 

And what shall I say to encourage you in faith 



A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 293 

and holy works of mighty daring ? For it requires 
the heroism of the old martyrs to live a Bible Chris- 
tian these clays. 

The dangers to holiness in believers come not so 
much from coarse vulgarities and immoralities as 
from the policy of compromise with the spirit of the 
world. Just now, perhaps, the greatest conflict in 
our own church relates to that great fundamental 
of Methodism, viz.: the sanctification of believers. 

But take courage, brother pilgrim, for God's eter- 
nal truth is making headway against the sophistry 
and skepticism both of pulpit and press. As it re- 
spects the M. E. Church, probably we never saw the 
day when Christian holiness occupied a position in 
our Zion so strong and prominent as at the present 
time. 

Then, on the other hand, it is to be feared that 
there are a greater proportion of our membership 
who are given up to the pleasures and silly fashions 
of this delusive world than formerly. Yea, it is a 
fact, if some ministers cannot see it, infidels can, as 
I have heard some declare recently. 

Here is your mission field, to save these multitudes 
who dream of heaven while dead to holiness and 
God. They are not outwardly wicked ; church 
members are as circumspect in life, as relates to 
moralities, as at any former period ; they are not 
hypocrites ; there's no temptation to hypocricy now 
— the popular standard can be reached without that 
trouble. But they are under the delusion that their 



294 A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 

fixed-up affair that they call religion will answer, 
especially since they give so much money to the 
cause. 

Here is work for the saints, to stand a warning 
against this worldly, frothy tinsel, jewel and jingle 
— dance and card play and novel reading religion, 
and then and there to demonstrate the power of 
Christ to save, in your own experience. And then 
to do all in the spirit of meekness, of patience and 
charity. 

For your graces will be tried ; you will be made 
to feel that you are not wanted, as you are an old 
fogy, as Wesley is called by some, and then, withal, 
you are " a disturbing element," you muss up the 
pretty things and pretty feelings. You won't speak 
the newly invented Shibboleth at all. How Young 
America hates these unalterables, these who persist 
in the old religion of their fathers ; just as if every 
body did not know of the late improvements in 
Methodistic religion. 

Your danger, or one danger, will be in falling 
from holy indignation to a sour, morose spirit, un- 
happy fault-finding ; throwing away the good because 
it were mixed with bad. Here some of the saved 
have fallen. Be kind — be charitable — be happy ! 
Insist on being happy, when there is nothing to 
make you unhappy except what lies without. 

Rejoice, though you may be sorrowful ; if you are 
saved, the rejoicing belongs to yourself — the sorrow 
comes from without ; don't exchange your inward 



A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 295 

heaven for outside unhappiness. Be condescending 
and long forbearing. But be jealous of that bland- 
ish glorification of an intelligent religion ; insist on 
Holy Ghost religion, fool or wise, and make the 
intelligent part second, as it is and will be eternally. 
The Infinite has a godliness here, too mysterious for 
our intelligence to comprehend. Beware of the 
subtle attempts to modify or fashion you over after 
the rudiments of the world, for we have soul killers 
as well as soul savers. Stand firm, like unchange- 
able granite, unmoved and undaunted, the true 
witnesses of God. 

Another danger to vital godliness or the sanctifi- 
cation of believers, is in the teachings of some that 
these figures and phrases which designate the distinct 
degrees or states of salvation are to be laid aside, 
and all merged in one generic term, Religion. 

This sounds clever, it's true, but if it don't cover 
up a cloven foot, I must learn depravity over again. 
It reminds me of a flour speculator in New York, 
who did not understand the terms of extra and double 
extra, &c. He says, this is good flour and that is 
enough ; but when the inspector appeared with his 
long auger that goes through the barrel from head 
to head, he raised sail for another port ; that little 
test instrument was too much for his concealed fraud. 

Tests in every department and everywhere are the 
dread of the spurious, while they glorify the gen- 
uine. Tests are the just due of righteousness, on 
these holy truth shall triumph. Friends of holiness, 



296 A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 

be definite in your faith, in your consecration and 
m your confessions, hold to your degrees and to 
God's terms and names. 

You ask if it is our duty to testify distinctly to 
this holy state. I ask is it our duty to confess Christ 
in our pardon or conversion ? Do any doubt this 
as duty ? If so, how, then, can it be our duty to 
acknowledge God in the process and be silent respect- 
ing the end ? Holiness is the climax state — the final 
degree of believers on earth, to which and for which 
all the preceding states and degrees are ordained. 
It is due to heaven and earth, angels and men, to 
know that Christ's great and gracious provisions for 
saving lost sinners are succeeding. It belongs to 
Christ's glory — the faithfulness of the Divine promise 
and the validity of man's faith are involved in this 
triumph. 

But since there are sincere souls all about you, 
occupying lower degrees than what you do, and yet 
accepted of the Lord and dearly beloved, you need 
not only humility but discretion also in your testi- 
monies, that you do not hurt the weak and timid 
ones — those who feel so unworthy and clefioient. 

These are not the persons who need to be con- 
trasted with the pure in heart to abate their self- 
righteousness, but to be encouraged by your inspiring 
faith and holy unction to press forward for the 
higher prize. It's ordained for you to help them. 
O, be faithful with the dear souls ; enter in as a 
joint worker with the Holy Ghost in bringing them 



A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 297 

into the holy of holies — to the blood of sprinkling 
and of purity. 

But the manifestation of this wondrous grace is 
not shut up to mortal tongue. 

There lives in the holy — in his uulikeness to all 
others, a voice louder and more emphatic than words 
ever knew — a voice speaking to the praise of God, 
and demonstratively to man. 

Instead, then, of laying the burden of this proof 
on the tongue, it only speaks the yea and amen of 
great soul talk. Your great utterances come not 
from dictionary words, spoken loud or low — not 
from great gifts nor great amount of labors, nor yet 
from circumspection of life, but from your moral 
power — from the superhuman of you. How deep 
have you been buried, and how high have you risen 
with Christ ? The extent of your transformation 
from self to God is seen in your spiritual perceptions 
and holy power. Can you reject plausible and fash- 
ionable wrongs — fashionable in the church, perhaps 
in pulpit and pew, without exhausting yourself, so 
to speak ; these genteel and aristocratic evils, which 
seem not to harm others, but you know would darken 
your soul like an eclipse at noon, for the Bible is 
against them ? 

Again, can you do duties which others excuse 
themselves from — duties out of the beaten track of 
labor ? Can you be spurned of men and counted 
weak minded, and even stand in doubt with y^ur 
minister, and yet hold steady to your God-orda.' ied 



298 • A WORD TO THE SAINTS. 

course without a single tack ! Here is testimony 
beyond the reach of tongue — here is moral power 
— here is God's grandeur in man ! Hold to the 
theory and faith of holy ancestors on this subject — 
a faith and experience authenticated by the con- 
flicts and triumphs of one hundred years — labors and 
triumphs, too, which we are proud to celebrate in 
the hundredth year of the holy war. 

Another perplexity to your faith is found in what 
I call tke growing theory. 

Some of the teachers, or rather the doctors of 
Methodism have discovered a place in this wondrous 
system of salvation where specialities and distinct 
stages or transitions cease, and the gradual, smooth 
progression sets in ; it is directly after Justification. 
Well, perhaps this is better than the theory of some 
churches, which propose to grow us all the way 
through from huge sinner to final triumph. They 
say, attend to such and such ceremonies, and live 
circumspect, &c, and you will grow into religion as 
corn grows from blade to ear. I take this view of 
the great salvation for man. It is made up of four 
distinct stages or states. 1st, the Penitent. 2d, the 
Justified ; 3d, the Sanctified ; 4th, the Glorified 
state. If I were to number the sanctified state at 
all, should call it the third blessing or state. 

I admit a gradual progression preparatory to eru 
tering into either or all these states — a growing up 
to them. But I deny the theory that we grow into 
any of them, not even the penitent state. 



A WOED TO THE SAINTS. 299 

We enter each and all these states by the special 
interposition of saving power, especially those of 
Justification and Sanctification. These involve a 
transaction — a joint effort between Holy Ghost and 
soul, in which the Infinite God performs a distinct 
and separate act, — an act specified and promised on 
the condition of a certain faith — a faith not like corn 
growing, mark ye, but a faith which involves an 
agony — a desperation in which the poor soul's all 
of strength shall fail, when, with the God-man, he 
shall prevail. This transaction and transition is 
called being born again ; mark that wonderful bible 
representation of this event. 

Then it is called creation — death — burial — enter- 
ing the strait gate — crucifixion, &c. 

All these representations are above and beyond 
the growing theory or growing power. 

Go through the ranks of these holy champions of 
truth, whether living or dead ; read up the history 
of these daring aggressors on formalism and world- 
liness, through whom God carries his triumphs to 
regions beyond ; find one who either grew into 
justification or sanctification, and you will find a 
novelty in the kingdom. This growing theory is 
the grand lullaby of depravity — the everlasting 
postponement of unbelief — a shrewd compromise or 
buying off of the conscience. 



CHINKS FOR BLANK CORNERS. 

MY D. D. 

Brother Pomeroy, they call you doctor; are you 
Doctor of Diviuity ? No, I am more or less — guess 
it's less ; am only Doctor of Depravity — that's what 
my D. D. stands for, and as there are so few of my 
profession, our work is all behind. 

FIRST PERSON SINGULAR. 

Brother P. why clo you use the sign of the first 
person singular so much in writing and speaking ? 
Why not use the plural we as others do ? Because 
there is only one of me ; it requires great men to 
make two apiece. But will not the people construe 
it into vanity or something of that kind ? Well, that 
shows their ignorance ; I can't turn fool to save their 
blunders. I means myself, and no more j ice means 
myself and enough more to make another, which in 
my case is a lie. Now, my friend, it takes all there 
is of me to make myself, and scrim pt at that. 

LAZINESS IN CONFEDERATION. 

Forget is the silent confederate of lazy muscles, a 
fine arrangement for passing off the clay comfortably 
and at small expense, but look out for the morrow 
consequences. 

TWO LOOKS. 

I suppose some of the long tubes of astronomy 
are such that with two looks, one would well nigh 
go through the illimitable. 






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